The Quest for the Legends
by Dragonfree
Summary: The story of an ordinary boy on an impossible quest in a world that isn't as black and white as he always thought it was.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Pokémon, but I do own the several fake Pokémon that appear throughout the story (though I'd like to pretend I didn't make up some of the stupider ones, alas, I did). If for some reason you don't know all the Pokémon and have only seen a species in this fic, it may not be real.

**Author's Note:** This fic is old and ridiculous on multiple levels. You'll note the publication date on it is 2004. I'm still writing it because I am apparently mad, but as far as I'm concerned the first thirty-something chapters of this are mostly godawful. If you're seeing this, I've been going through to remove the many terrible author's notes and so on that I made in my fourteen-year-old stupidity, but please don't judge my current writing by anything in the first half of this story (or any of the things in the second half that are necessitated by ridiculousness introduced in the first half).

* * *

**Prologue**

The flaming remains of a town burned sadly in the sharp wind. Gray, gloomy clouds covered the sky, a bit of vibrant red sunlight reaching through them in the west.

The blood-soaked ground was covered in bodies. Most of them were whole. In fact, a few might still have been breathing some of the last breaths of their lives. Others were completely torn apart, so that it seemed almost like a supernatural being had swept past with the sole intention of killing them, but its mere presence had made everything else drop dead as well.

There was one thing that the torn apart ones had in common: while they lived, they had been known as Legendary Pokémon. These former streets contained the bodies of twelve Legendary Pokémon. All but two of them would soon be buried in the sands of time, forgotten and insignificant in history.

These two others had another thing to tell them apart from the other Legendaries, which was that they were not among the mutilated ones. And in fact, had anyone been there to compare them, he would have found the two distantly similar. Both of them had somewhat catlike heads and long tails with ovals on the ends, but one was smaller, pinkish-white and had a rabbit-like contrast in the length of the four legs, the front ones being short but the back ones long. It was breathing faintly. The other was larger, more human-shaped overall, had a light purplish gray body and a deep purple, muscular tail. It also had a large, drying wound in the middle of its non-moving chest, clarifying it as newly dead.

After a while, the small one stirred. Consciousness slowly returned to the furred body. A leg twitched. Soon enough, its eyes opened.

"Mew?"

The small creature rose up and stared wide-eyed at the destruction.

The Legendary Pokémon levitated a meter or so into the air as its big, innocent-looking sapphire blue eyes fearfully scanned the area, as if looking for something. Then it seemed to have found what it was looking for; it stopped, kicked the air with both of its long hind legs and darted towards the left.

Terrified, the Legendary looked upon a black, feline-like head with neon green markings. The same green shade was also on six long spikes which sprouted from the back of its head, three on each side. The left eye socket was empty; what had been the right eyeball was now merely a bloody mess.

The pink Legendary's disbelieving eyes stared at the head in horror, oblivious to the death all around. Silent tears filled them.

"Chalenor…" sounded a weak telepathic voice around the lifeless town.


	2. The Pokémon on the Road

**Chapter 1: The Pokémon on the Road**

Exactly 999 years later, it was a beautiful morning in the town of Sailance in North-West Ouen.

The trees' branches swayed gently in the soft breeze, providing a constant, quiet rustle. The sun was rising, coloring the sky in a glorious, vibrant red. The air was comfortably warm and fresh. The only thing the scenery lacked was birdsong. That was also the only part of it that Mark Greenlet even remotely cared about.

He was short, thin, dark-haired, and currently on the way to school. A year ago, he would've been with his best friend Alex, chatting and feeling good. Now, Alex was probably somewhere with his Totodile having fun, while Mark was home in Sailance, walking alone, quiet and feeling miserable.

Mark's parents were over-protective. There was no question about that. Almost all the other kids had been taken to Green town last year to receive a Pokémon from Ash Ketchum. Out of the ones left, Mark was the only one who had been looking forward to it for his whole life, only to have his parents tell him that it was too dangerous. What did they know, anyway – they had lived in North-West Ouen for their whole lives and never been trainers.

The problem was that North-West Ouen had no Pokémon in it, for some reason that Pokémon experts had always debated about. The people who lived there were all lawyers or other rich people who wanted a life in peace without Pokémon and little kids asking them for a battle all day. And if there was anything that people who had lived there for more than thirty years did not understand, it was the concept of Pokémon training. Mark's parents kept pointing out to him the possibility of getting a 'real' job. A programmer? How about a professional artist, since you draw so well? They would ask questions like that every time he mentioned that he wanted a Pokémon of his own, and were absolutely incapable of understanding how he felt when all his classmates and friends left.

Mark walked grudgingly into the school building. He hated it, especially the prison-like outwards appearance and that dull, lifeless, rock-gray color of it. Mark loved living things; he had since he was little, and hated gray because it was so lifeless. The corridors were even duller, even grayer and even more lifeless, which only added to the depressing feeling of the whole building. To top it all, all the students were snappy and irritated, usually because they wanted to train Pokémon, and the teachers were all snappy and irritated too, simply because of the gloomy atmosphere that never left the building.

Mark's first lesson on Thursdays was Battling Strategies, a branch of Pokémonology. He sighed as he sat down in front of the classroom. What a waste of time; he would never get the opportunity to use any battling strategies. Besides, whether it was because of his rather negative opinion on the classes or because he would rather spend them drawing on the back of his school papers, he was completely lousy at Pokémonology. For tests, he desperately sank himself into the textbook and sure enough, he managed to learn the bits of the text he found the most interesting pretty well. The problem was that they always asked about the most boring and uninteresting things, such as the level at which one Pokémon approximately evolved into another. This just made him despise Pokémonology even more.

He preferred Pokémon Communication classes by far – 'Pokémonish', as they were usually referred to in everyday speech. He was much better at languages than learning stupid things by heart, aside from finding Pokémon's language very interesting in general. Those few things in Pokémonology that had sunk in over the years mostly had something to do with this remarkable language of syllables, bodily expressions and voice tones anyway.

One of the very best things in Pokémonish, also, was that in exams, live Pokémon were brought to classes and the kids got one Pokémon each to stage a normal casual chat with. At the end of the class, the Pokémon each gave the teacher a report on how well the students handled the conversation. Mark was very good at it, which he was deep inside rather proud of although he didn't like to brag. He remembered the test last year where he had discussed Pokémon rights with a Vulpix. He smiled faintly at the thought; it was probably one of the best memories of his life. The two of them had had so much in common, and they had ended up in an exciting discussion about Pokémon rights that went way past the time the exam was supposed to take. The teacher had been forced to recall the Vulpix into his Pokéball in order to get Mark to leave the classroom. Since then, Mark had been daydreaming about one day sneaking out to Green town on his own account and getting a Vulpix; this one incident had bumped the red fox Pokémon to the 'awesome' section of his favorite Pokémon list.

But the class he enjoyed the most was Art. His Pokémon pictures received very positive comments by Miss Taintor, who was a professional artist along with her teaching. She was the type of person that was always honest and all but afraid of telling somebody basically that their pictures sucked, but she mysteriously managed not to sound mean, however bad she thought the picture was. Mark was weird when it came to criticism; he subconsciously hated being criticized at all by other people, even if he completely agreed. That could be a good thing; in fact, it had been what caused him to suddenly decide to draw all day during the summer when he turned nine. When Miss Taintor saw his art in fourth grade, she had said, as he still remembered word for word: "Big improvement, young man – if there were more students like you in this stupid school, I'd be out of a job." Probably another one of his very best memories – being congratulated by a harsh critic felt a lot better than the constant compliments from his parents and relatives who always pretended that everything he did was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and hearing a teacher call the school stupid made him feel like they were on the same team. After that, he had started to appreciate constructive criticism – he still didn't technically like it, but it definitely helped.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the bell ringing. Mark hated that sound; it hurt his ears. To his opinion, it should just be about as loud as the beep of his digital watch – at least everybody in the classroom could hear it quite clearly if he had forgotten to disable the alarm, and not even his own sensitive ears considered the noise too loud.

At least, he heavily stood up, and got in line with the few other kids in sixth grade who weren't out training Pokémon. Mrs. Grodski, who taught Pokémonology, was a very grumpy old lady who wore the biggest glasses Mark had ever seen, spoke through her overly large nose and had developed a strong hatred for Mark for some reason he had never understood.

"Good morning, class," she said sternly as everybody had taken their places standing behind their chairs.

"Good morning, Mrs. Grodski," the class mumbled, apart from Mark, who said his usual "Good morning, Mrs. Grumpy." He knew it was safe; it drowned completely in the rest of the class's murmurs.

"Today," Mrs. Grodski announced with a frown at how tired all the kids sounded, "we will be studying up on recoil attacks. Sit down and turn to page forty-two, please."

Mark sighed and opened his book as Mrs. Grodski watched him carefully, but as soon as she began talking, he silently took out his binder and started to draw a Lugia on the back of an English assignment. It was his favorite Pokémon of all; he drew it all the time. Articuno, his second favorite, was a bit trickier to draw, but that didn't make him like it any less. He loved all the Legendary Pokémon. In fact, he was utterly obsessed with them. He had been fascinated by those ultimate beings of the world since he was little.

"And just what do you think you're doing, Mr. Greenlet?" Mrs. Grodski's voice snapped. He looked slowly up from his Lugia, partially covering it with his hand. Mark had a hard time hiding his laughter behind an innocent expression.

"I believe I'm drawing, Mrs. Grodski, unless I'm very much mistaken," he said in a sarcastically polite voice. There were some snickers from behind.

"Quiet!" the teacher screeched. "And stop scribbling on your papers, least of all in my class!"

Mark grimaced at her as she returned to her desk, and made the textbook stand open on the table, shielding the binder and making him look like he was actually reading.

* * *

Finally, the day was over. The sky was now slowly getting covered with depressing clouds. Mark went to play soccer with the fifth graders as usual, not really concentrating.

It was early May. May was something that Mark subconsciously connected to the bad knot in his stomach that formed every year as he watched all the lucky ten-year-olds drive away for Green town at the end of the month to get a Pokémon. The kids he was with now would probably all leave on an adventurous Pokémon journey soon while he would be left at home, standing at some street corner and drawing the city with imaginary Rattata poking out of the dustbins, Taillow singing in the trees and maybe a lone Meowth staring hungrily at them from below.

The ball came flying towards him and he kicked it away very hard, not bothering to aim anywhere. Stupid Pokémon! Why couldn't they just get their butts over to North-West Ouen!

Mark felt all the unfairness of the situation load up behind his eyes and attempting to get out in liquid form.

_Oh, no, you don't, you're staying in there,_ he ordered, screwing his eyes shut for a second and opening them again. He felt a strong urge to be alone.

He ended up leaving the game and going home to sulk.

The weather was now gray and gloomy, fitting Mark's mood perfectly; the clouds were thickening up and it would likely start raining soon. He quickened his pace as he turned down his home street. When he was just about to cross it, he heard something. Something that came from the bushes his back was currently turned to.

He jumped, twisting around immediately. Dead quiet, he waited for a few seconds. Then it happened again – a branch moved and a twig cracked.

Very slowly and carefully, his heart beating like a drum in his chest, he stepped up to the bush and pulled the branches apart. To his great disappointment, there was nothing there at all. He sighed. He had been hoping he had found the first Pokémon of North-West Ouen… maybe a Vulpix. He grinned at the thought, but then shook his head.

"Come on," he said bitterly to himself, "stop dreaming… you're never going to become a Pokémon trainer."

He ran across the street. It was starting to rain.

* * *

After a very normal, quiet dinner with his parents while watching Bravo Trainer, he sat down in the sofa in the living room, and stared outside through the blurry, wet glass in the window facing the street.

He stopped dead.

There was definitely something moving out there. Something… reddish?

The word 'Vulpix' instantly crossed his mind, although he knew it was ridiculous to assume that the starter Pokémon of his dreams had suddenly appeared in front of his house. Mark leapt to the front door, into his boots and pulled the door open.

There was indeed a Pokémon there, but it wasn't a Vulpix. It was an orange, cute-looking bipedal lizard; one of those he had used to point at in picture books when he was little, announcing that it was a Fire-type in order to make his parents nod appreciatively and tell him he was really smart remembering it all.

But this was a real, living Charmander, not a picture in a book, and this fact made the Pokémon seem scary and foreign. It was lying limply on the middle of the road, and the flame that was supposed to be on the tip of its tail was merely a small, bright glow. That was still enough to indicate that it was alive.

At first, Mark just stood there like a cow, staring, but then he was knocked to his senses by the sound of a car. He ran out onto the road, picked up the Pokémon and hurried inside with it, already soaked wet by the downpour.

Mark slammed the door shut and started fanning the Charmander's tail flame stupidly with his hand in order to revive it, with little success.

"Mom! I – I found a Charmander on the road!" he panted.

"Really?" sounded his mother's voice absent-mindedly from upstairs. "Very nice, but why don't you just go into your room, dear?"

"Parents," Mark hissed at nobody but himself and the unconscious Pokémon in his arms. Then he yelled: "Aren't you listening? I FOUND A FREAKING CHARMANDER!"

He heard his mother, clearly thinking this was some kind of a game, sigh and stand up before coming down the stairs with red, tired eyes and a cup of coffee in her hands.

_Crash!_ She dropped the cup and it fell to the floor, shattering to a thousand pieces and spilling coffee all over.

"Wha - what is that thing?" she then squeaked, sounding like this was the first time she saw a Pokémon close-up, which is probably was.

"It's a Charmander!" Mark snapped. "A Pokémon! And it's dying!"

"Oh God!" she uttered out, speechless. "John!"

"Not now," Mark's father mumbled from upstairs, sounding half-asleep. She dug her fingers deep into her curly mess of blond hair, repeating "Oh, what can we do? What can we do?" in a panicky voice.

Mark rolled his eyes, sighed and started waving his hand again in attempts to get the Charmander's flame burning properly again. Slowly as the tail tip dried, the flame was restored. Mark breathed in relief; half because the Charmander was saved, half because his hand was getting stiff from all the fanning.

"Is… is it okay?" his mother asked carefully as Mark shook his entire arm to loosen the hand muscles.

"Yeah," he said and smiled. "But I think it needs rest. Er… I guess you should go and get some old cloth so I can put it in my bed, otherwise it'll burn the house down."

His mother went back upstairs and got some old clothes of Mark he didn't fit into anymore. He took them to his bedroom and placed them in the corner of his bed, laying the Charmander gently on top of them. The tail flame burned peacefully. Mark wondered who originally had the idea of making clothes flame-proof; it had always seemed very pointless to him, but now it sure came in handy.

He picked up the book about the Johto Legendary Pokémon on his desk and started to read, keeping an eye on the lizard. He was starting to calm down and think reasonably. Of course, this Charmander wasn't wild. It obviously was trained. Charmander were very rare Pokémon from Kanto, how would one suddenly be in Ouen, let alone the North-West part? Its trainer was probably looking for it. Maybe he'd get a reward for finding it? Or maybe, just maybe… it had been released on purpose?

Mark grinned, looking forward to next morning.


	3. The Book

**Chapter 2: The Book**

When Mark woke up, the Charmander was still asleep, but this time curled up with the tail flame burning peacefully beside its head. Mark carefully placed his hand onto the Pokémon's back; it was warm and seemed to be breathing normally. He gave a faint smile, dressed quickly and then tiptoed into the kitchen, where he was greeted by his parents' serious faces and folded arms.

"Mark," his father sighed, "we need to talk."

* * *

"Why not?" Mark shouted across the table, crushing his cornflakes violently. He couldn't help noticing that despite his parents being very much unlike each other in outwards appearance – his father having black hair and being short just like him, but his mother a tall, thin blonde with big, toadlike eyes – they managed to look remarkably similar when they were both of the same mind.

"It's very simple, Mark; it's dangerous out there," his father sighed.

"So what? I'd have a Pokémon for my protection!" Mark said eagerly.

His mother replied quietly: "But what if your Pokémon turns against you?"

"That… that… just… doesn't happen!" Mark said lamely. In fact, he had no idea, but he would soon learn it, if only they would stop getting in his way.

"Are you sure?" his mother asked kindly.

"Well, no, not really, but…"

"See, we just want to keep you safe," she said in a voice Mark recognized as the one she used when she was trying to be convincing. Needless to say, Mark had grown completely oblivious to it over those eleven years.

"But, oh, mom…"

"Besides," his father interrupted, "we've yet to check all the reported lost Pokémon."

Mark didn't say anything; he was aware of that, but he was still hoping somebody had released the Charmander on purpose. His father stood slowly up, not taking his eyes off Mark, went to the computer in the corner (which was mainly used to find recipes online) and typed ' .com' into the address bar. Mark quickly jumped to read over his shoulder as he searched for 'Charmander'.

A broad grin spread through Mark's face as the results appeared: Two lost Charmander, both of them in Kanto.

His father sighed. "That does not mean you're about to go on a journey."

Mark was going to protest, but was interrupted by a sound:

"Char?"

The little lizard carefully stepped into the kitchen and looked curiously around.

"Oh, it's awake," Mark's father groaned.

"I'm not an 'it'," said the Charmander offended, at least if Mark's knowledge of Pokémonish was as accurate as ever. The Pokémon's voice, though rather high-pitched on human scale, was masculine.

Mark turned to his father with and said in a scolding tone: "He's a he, dad. Should I have said 'Oh, it's awake' when I came in here and saw you?"

"What's going on?" asked Charmander, puzzled.

"We're arguing over whether you will go psycho and kill me," said Mark and shot a 'what-weirdoes-those-adults-can-be' look back at his parents. Charmander raised an eyebrow.

"Look, hon, that's not quite the way we put it," Mark's mother began in an apologetic tone, but Charmander interrupted loudly:

"What am I doing here, anyway?"

"Er," was all Mark's father said.

"I brought you in here when you fell unconscious on the road in the rain yesterday," said Mark, leaning down to Charmander's level so the lizard wouldn't have to look so much up. "And the reason we're arguing is that I was… uh… wondering…" Suddenly he felt like abandoning the idea; it seemed so ridiculous when he was starting to say it aloud.

"If you can be my trainer?" Charmander finished for him, sensing that Mark wasn't about to continue. Mark nodded nervously; the Pokémon just smiled. "Sure, why not, since you saved me and all… I need a new trainer anyway…"

"What's your name?" Mark immediately asked, feeling comfortably warm and light.

"I don't really have one, just call me Charmander," he answered cheerfully. Both of them looked hopefully up at Mark's parents, wearing the broadest grins they could manage.

"No way," said his father, folding his arms. Charmander's expression dropped.

"Maybe I should just leave, then," he said emptily, turning around.

"No, wait… you can stay here and all… just as a pet or something!" Mark's father called after him, not wanting to send the poor thing out to die in the next downpour. Charmander turned slowly back to them.

"Do you trust me more here than out there?"

"It's just that..." Mark's father started, but his wife interrupted:

"You can't deny that there are dangerous Pokémon out there – and you're too small to handle them if they do attack."

"But they're usually nowhere near Sailance!" Mark argued.

"Usually," his father emphasized.

Charmander couldn't think of anything to say – it looked like his and Mark's silent plan wasn't working.

Yet.

* * *

For a few days, Charmander was a pet. Mark and he always went to bed very early, but set Mark's digital watch to beep at two AM or so, and then in the dark bedroom with Charmander's tail flame as the only light source, they discussed ways to get out on a journey. Just for fun, they started imagining this was the dungeon in the castle of two evil lords who kept them imprisoned, inventing loads of ideas of how to escape, each more absurd than the other.

"I think we must use our cunningness for this," Mark whispered, leaning closer to Charmander. "You will set the castle on fire and while they burn, we will run and tell the world of their dictatorship so that peace can reign in Ouen again."

They both snickered.

"Hey, Mark…" said Charmander thoughtfully, "I think I have an idea. A real idea…"

* * *

Mark walked into the kitchen in the morning, his face expressionless.

"I don't want breakfast, mom," he said gloomily. "I just came to say goodbye."

"What?"

"I'm gonna kill myself."

_Crash._ A second cup went to waste. His mother's expression was so priceless he almost burst out laughing, but resisted it; he had to keep the depressed-and-tired-of-life face.

"No, you're not!" she screeched.

"It's just… my friends are all gone," he went on.

"But how do we fix that, dear?" she asked in a worried tone.

"I just wish I could go and meet up with them, on my own journey." Mark immediately realized that the smile that followed was far too hopeful. And too un-depressed. His mother sighed.

"You're not funny, Mark. I mean… do you even have any idea how much that cup cost?"

"A lot, if I know you correctly," Mark muttered, well aware that the cup was just a random thing she turned her attention to because she had been very upset. Neither of them said anything for a while, until his mother sighed again.

"Are you _that_ desperate to go on that journey of yours?"

"Of course I am!" Mark replied, his expression brightening up. "Mom, Charmander and I have been secretly thinking up plans at night! We've been imagining you're evil dictators keeping us inside a dungeon and planning our escape in the middle of the night!"

"And," said Charmander's threatening voice as the lizard Pokémon entered the room, "we will do that every night from now on and there's no way for you to stop us."

Mark's mother put up a weird expression halfway between a smile and a hopeless look, and then said: "You're incredible, boys – I think there's no way to keep you in here for very long before you think of a way to force us to let you out."

"YES!" Charmander shouted.

"WHOOOOO!" Mark yelled, giving his Pokémon a high five. He hugged his mother tightly.

"Thanks, mom."

She just hugged him back, tears in her eyes.

* * *

Things were being packed into an old red and blue backpack that looked like it could burst at any time. Mark's father was not happy, but he had ended up giving in to his wife, who was suddenly all for it like she had never thought otherwise. Mark and Charmander bounced around the house in a wild celebration-dance. He got a nice sum of money to buy things for. Finally, he set off with Charmander by his side.

"Bye dad! Bye mom! I promise I won't get myself killed!" Mark's mother smiled through the tears as he waved. Then he turned and started running.

The Gyms in Ouen had been arranged so that the recommended first Gym was in Cleanwater city, a big one which was conveniently not that far from Sailance, then went in a spiral inwards until the last gym was in Acaria city in the heart of the continent. Cleanwater was near the edge of the Pokémon-inhabited part of Ouen, built near a mysterious lake which was famous for being so clear that the bottom was always visible in details, despite being the second-deepest lake in the whole of Ouen. It was therefore called "The Lake of Purity".

But Mark was not headed to Cleanwater city yet. He was going to the Sailance Library to get a book about Pokémon training.

Mark, despite all his interest in Pokémon, was a rookie when it came to the trainer career itself. He knew how it worked, of course, and the rules of the Pokémon League, but frankly he was rather clueless about the rest. His parents knew no more, seeing as they had never been trainers, so they had advised him to go to the library. There had to be some kind of a book explaining all that stuff. He had just never looked for one since he never thought he'd need it.

The library was a huge, bright white building in the middle of the town. The walls were decorated with carvings of various Pokémon; Mark's favorite was located over the door and was a big Articuno flying to the left, its tail feather swishing behind it and looking amazingly alive. As always when Mark entered the library, he bowed his head slightly as he looked at the magnificent bird. The automatic door slowly slid open before him, and he prepared to walk inside when he remembered that Pokémon weren't allowed in the library.

"Sorry, Charmander, you'll have to wait outside," he said guiltily. "I won't be long."

"No problem," said Charmander, smiling. "It's not like anybody could steal me or anything."

Mark eyed a few people staring at the Pokémon like a miracle, and pride started spreading around his chest. To think of it… _he was a trainer._

He smiled back at his Pokémon friend, and then entered the building.

The search computers along with a few shelves of paperbacks with huge titles greeted him, along with the familiar smell of books that Mark had always loved. But he ignored them and walked right to the elevators, as this book would be on the second floor, which was devoted to Pokémon training. As he entered the lift, an endless row of Marks stared back at him from the mirrors on the sides. All of them turned to the buttons at the same time, and all of them managed to slip their fingers between buttons two and three, accidentally highlighting both as the elevator started ascending.

It stopped on the second floor and a tall, thin young man with a suitcase stepped in, holding a book. Curious as to why such a man would be reading something on Pokémon training, Mark took a peek at the title. It was something stupid about Pokémon battles being a bad influence on kids; however, Mark completely forgot to get out of the lift until he discovered that the door had closed and they were starting to go up again. The elevator came to a halt and the door opened. Mark looked uncomfortably up at the man, who looked out of the book and seemed to wonder why Mark hadn't exited yet. He hated to be stared at by strangers; that feeling pushed him out through the door to enter the floor about Pokémon in general.

This was the floor he usually stopped at when he went to the library. Every so often, he would return his books and take new ones, most of which were always about Legendary Pokémon. The shelf containing those books was located… right in front of him.

He had automatically walked straight up to that shelf when he exited the elevator. And as he had so often seen that shelf, he immediately noticed a new book that made his heart pound faster. On the black spine, golden, curly letters formed the title:

_The Ouen Legends_

It was an interesting fact that while all the Legendary Pokémon of Kanto, Johto and Hoenn were well known and their existence definite, the Ouen ones appeared to be very shy. Many scientists didn't even believe they were real. All photos were too blurry to tell if the creatures on them were anything more than normal Pokémon. No Pokédex data recorded. A ton of reported sightings with no evidence to support them. Hence, Mark could well imagine why it would be hard to write a book about them; at least it had to be, considering that he had never seen one before.

That fact only made his need to read this book even more overwhelming. He felt drawn to it like a fly to a lightbulb. Barely even realizing what he was doing, he extended his hand and grabbed the book with a firm grip, slowly drawing it out of the shelf. What surprised him was that the book was dusty, like it had been there for years.

Mark shook his head and, with the book in his hands, walked over to a big, fluffy and comfortable-looking green couch. He flung himself into it, examining the cover illustration. At the top were six dragons in different colors, the so-called Color Dragons. Below them, eight unicorns. At the very bottom… Mewtwo?

Yup, he was sure of it. The whitish-purple anthro cat-like shape was unmistakably that of the first super-clone that had ever been created and had gotten such experiments banned. A Kanto Legendary.

_What's Mewtwo doing on the cover of a book about the Ouen legendaries?_ Mark thought. He looked better at Mewtwo's shape. The eyes were closed, but looked creepily open all the same. _It's that highlight,_ said Mark's artist eye. _The shading gives that effect, the highlight on the eyelid looks distantly like a pupil._ But it was still scary to look at closed eyes that seemed to be watching. Had the cover artist drawn it like that on purpose?

Either way, Mewtwo wasn't supposed to be there at all. Mark scanned his head for a reason why Mewtwo would be on the cover of a book about the Ouen Legendaries, but found none.

He shrugged and opened the book. He flicked past the title pages, leant backwards and sank himself into the book.

It started with the Color Dragons. The left page had a watercolor illustration of them, with their names written near them.

Lidreki was small and cute with silver scales. What caught Mark's attention about it, however, was that somehow, the scales broke the light into the colors of the rainbow where the light shone directly at them. Lidreki technically wasn't one of the real Color Dragons; it evolved into them. That made it no less of a Legendary, though, as it was just as shrouded in mystery as its adult forms. The Color Dragons themselves were all larger than Lidreki; they were basically European-style dragons with big, clawed legs, small arms and broad wings spreading out from their shoulders.

Dragoreen, the Dragon of the Poor, was a metallic green, feminine-looking dragon and didn't have any outstanding features over the others. She glared hatefully at Preciure, the Dragon of Wealth, opposite her on the page; he was a golden male with silver spikes lined down his back. He returned the gaze, full of loathing.

The crimson dragon above Preciure was a female: Raudra, the Dragon of Fire. She shook her golden mane, facing her back at her brother Dracobalt, the Dragon of Water. He was deep blue in color, with a fin down his entire back, and shot a sideways glance at Raudra, clearly not too keen on her either.

The last two were Puragon, the White Dragon, and Venoir, the Black Dragon. Puragon was a pearly white female with four narrow crystalline horns, looking serenely at the viewer. Venoir, on the other hand, was pitch-black in color, a male and had dark purple, bull-like horns. His eyes were creepily red, staring hungrily at his sister across the page.

Mark smiled, his gaze moving over to the right page.

_THE COLOR DRAGONS_

_The legend says that an ancient, powerful dragon Pokémon named Vaxil, the Dragon of the Rainbow, laid six eggs and hid them where no living creature could harm them. One she dropped into the crater of a volcano, one she hid at the bottom of a deep lake, one she secured in a dark cave, one she buried in snow, and two she took with her to her own cave, filled with gold and treasures._

_The first egg to hatch was one of the eggs that Vaxil had taken with her. As the other eggs would later, it hatched into a Lidreki. He was greedy and loved nothing more than burying himself in his mother's gold._

_The second egg to hatch was the one in the volcano. That Lidreki was female, and she loved the lava, fed on it and never felt the need to leave the volcano's crater. The third egg was the one in the dark cave. It was a male, and he fed on poisonous Pokémon that lurked there in the dark, without ever finding out that there was anything outside the cave._

_The fourth egg that hatched was the one in the snow. The young Lidreki was a female, and slowly became oblivious to the cold. The fifth egg was the one at the bottom of the lake. A male, he adapted to underwater life, hunted fish and rarely went out of the lake._

_Finally, the sixth egg hatched – the other egg that Vaxil had taken with her. It was a female, and a deep rivalry immediately started between her and her older brother. They hated each other, and one day, he fought her out of the cave, and she sought her brothers and sisters to help resisting him._

_She went to her sister in the volcano and to her brother in the lake. She went to her brother in the cave and to her sister in the snow. She lived with all of them for a while, and told them all – because Vaxil had told her – where the other ones were hidden, and asked them to come and help against her oldest brother. They came, rather for seeing their mother than for helping their sister, but as they traveled, they developed hate for each other in pairs, and upon their arrival in Vaxil's cave, a fight broke out. The oldest brother fought the youngest sister, the sister from the volcano fought her brother from the lake, and the brother in the cave fought his sister in the snow. Vaxil attempted to stop them, but they merely fought her back and in the end Vaxil threw herself off the cliff to her death. The siblings were horrified, each blaming another, but slowly they became enveloped in a white glow and evolved, each to one of the Color dragons depending on their habitats from birth._

_Due to their mother's death, they decided not to keep fighting and let each other leave in peace, and supposedly they still lurk out there, desiring only superiority over the opposite sibling._

_All of them have special abilities. Raudra, Dracobalt, Puragon and Venoir have immense powers of fire, water, ice and poison respectively, but Dragoreen's attacks are independent on the defender's weaknesses or resistances, and Preciure's golden scales can repel any attack well and effectively._

Mark turned past some pages consisting of the few things he already knew, interviews with people who claimed to have seen them and some old paintings of the Color Dragons, and finally reached the next chapter.

The left page again had a watercolor illustration. It showed the unicorns all together, dashing towards the viewer. The first one, Waraider, was white with a bony, swirled horn and broad, feathered wings extending from his shoulder blades. Emphire, to Waraider's left, was also white but had a flaming mane and tail, a golden horn and fiery wings of some sort flapping at her sides.

Next was Seasar, who was dark blue in color. He didn't appear to have a tail or mane at all; instead, a stream of water flowed smoothly down his neck, along his whole back and then gracefully dropped down behind him like a waterfall, only to dissolve into thin air before reaching the ground. Although hard to see, he had wispy, formless, vaporous wings.

Electhrone was the fourth one, to the left of Seasar. He was whitish-yellow, but sparks of electricity appeared to replace his mane and tail. The horn was a bit crooked; odd, very straight, pointed feathers formed his two wings.

Natruler was next; her fur was off-white, but where the mane and tail should have been, grass and leaves sprouted right out of her skin. Long, feather-shaped leaves formed into her thin wings, and the horn looked almost wooden. At Natruler's side was an icily bluish-white one, Freezaroy. Her silky mane and tail produced snow that spiraled after her, blown away by the flapping of her giant wings. The wings were made of thin icicles rather than feathers. So was the horn on her forehead.

The last two were Mysticrown and Darkhan. Mysticrown's tail and mane were magenta, and a big, purple gem replaced the horn. Similar smaller ones glistened in various places on her body, most noticeably on all of her white wing feathers. Darkhan, on the other hand, was pitch-black with leathery, bat-like wings and some sort of thick black smoke forming his mane and tail.

Mark turned to the information page.

_WARAIDER'S HERD_

_Waraider the Normal type leads the group of his special-typed counterparts; unlike the Color dragons, all of them supposedly keep close together wherever they go. According to the legend, their being together keeps the world balanced, and should they ever be separated, chaos will reign until they reunite._

_There have been interestingly many reported sightings of the herd, but neither photos nor Pokédex data exist to prove any of them._

Mark skipped past a lot of pages, just for the sake of finding out what he was the most curious about: why Mewtwo was in that book. He thought he remembered one more Legendary – if he knew correctly, one of the Ouen Legendaries was in fact confirmed to be real – but the name escaped him at the moment.

He looked at the illustration first as he had done before. Again, its eyes were closed in that creepy 'watching' manner that had been on the cover picture. Mark couldn't help wondering why it was drawn like that, though. He would've believed Mewtwo's eyes would usually be open.

The answer was on the right page, where the title – partially – explained it:

_CHALETWO_

"Oh, yeah," Mark muttered to himself. "That was the name." He definitely remembered Chaletwo as one of the Legendary Pokémon – however, he didn't believe he had ever seen any pictures of it. At least he thought he'd remember if there was an Ouen Legendary that looked exactly like Mewtwo.

He started reading the text.

_Chaletwo is the only one of the Ouen Legendaries whose existence is definite and confirmed. He appears every year at the exact same time and place: 4:26:45 PM on the 25th of May, just outside Green Town. It is thanks to the tourist attraction that sprouted from Chaletwo's annual comings that Green Town became so big._

_The first time that a human witnessed him, he supposedly said telepathically: "Do not fear. I am Chaletwo and do not intend to harm you nor any other living thing. I only wish to come here once a year and have a quick look around the world."_

_Nobody knows why he bears such a striking resemblance to Mewtwo, who is in fact a Kanto Legendary (although that is arguable, considering that he is man-created)._

Well, at least it wasn't just something that Mark had never found out.

_Due to Chaletwo's limited availability, Mewtwo has been asked about this by a reporter._

_"Do you think I wouldn't like to know?" he answered before teleporting away. "He said he didn't wish to tell, least of all me. He wouldn't reveal anything else. Stop asking."_

_People wonder whether Chaletwo might be another Super-clone, backing that up with the name he after all introduced himself with (which ends in the trademark "-two" of a genetically modified Pokémon clone), but experts doubt it._

_"He's not just a simple second Mew clone," Ash Ketchum explains. "I've studied both of them carefully, and I'm telling you that every last hair on their bodies is the exact same. Technically, Mewtwo's creators could have made an additional one with almost the exact same genetic code, resulting in a clone that's the same, but face it, according to all sources we have, Mewtwo destroyed the lab and everything in it, which would have had to include another embryo if one had been there."_

_Chaletwo differs from Mewtwo in two aspects: his eyes will destroy or kill anything they are pointed at except his own eyelids, and Pokédexes record a Dark element in him in addition to the Psychic that Mewtwo has. Pokédexes also classify him as the most powerful Pokémon in the world, tied with…_

Mark suddenly checked his watch, discovering for how long he had been reading, and jumped up, quickly returning the book to the shelf as he ran down to meet up with Charmander again.


	4. Vuiiiii!

**Chapter 3: Vuiiii!**

When Mark was out of the library, Charmander was sitting on the stone steps, his head resting against the shiny wall and his eyes closed peacefully; basically, he was looking absolutely adorable, attracting quite a few 'awww's from passers-by.

"Are you asleep?" Mark asked cautiously, poking Charmander's shoulder. The Pokémon jumped, eyes opening wide.

"Wha… no, I was just… er, in deep thought," he replied awkwardly.

"Right," said Mark and grinned. "Shouldn't we move on?"

Charmander stood up, and they walked out of the town while dark clouds gathered above them.

* * *

Keep running, keep running…

Four small paws beat the ground soundlessly.

He had no idea where he was running, nor did he care.

It didn't matter.

Why would it? He had better things to worry about.

A bright white lightning flashed with a terrible roar of thunder. He shrieked in fear, turned around and ran even faster in the other direction.

Small drops of water started falling, prickling down his beautifully light brown fur coat and soaking the soft, creamy-colored ruff around his neck. He shivered, but kept running.

* * *

It had started to rain. Charmander's tail flame was spouting thick steam; Mark glanced worriedly at it every now and then as they walked down the road south to Cleanwater.

"Are you going to be OK?"

"Yeah, I've been through more rain," said Charmander casually, obviously referring to the one Mark saved him out of.

"If you think so," said Mark doubtfully, still keeping an eye on his friend.

* * *

_Should I give up all hope? _

No…

_ It… can't be…_

He was far too exhausted to run, but the knowledge that by every passing second, his greatest fear was more likely to have come true, drove him on.

His forepaw hit a small rock hidden in the wet grass. He tried to keep his balance, but tumbled over. He got up right away and despite the pain nailing his left front paw, he aced it and kept going at the same pace.

* * *

"Hey, Charmander, have you ever thought about evolution?"

"Yeah, why?" Charmander questioned.

"Do you want to?" Mark rephrased his question.

"Huh?"

"Do you want to evolve?"

"Why are you asking?" Charmander said, puzzled, looking up at Mark.

"Shouldn't I ask you?" Mark asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course you should," Charmander said, looking down. "But most trainers wouldn't, that's why I was surprised. My old trainer wouldn't." He spat the last words in a resentful tone.

"Yeah, that's one thing," Mark said thoughtfully, "did your trainer release you?"

"No… not really…" said Charmander faintly.

"What happened?"

"Well… he battled a girl with a Quilava once. Didn't use me for it, he never used me at all. But she beat him and he showed her me, lied that I was level 15 like her Quilava was, and asked to trade. She bought it, she didn't really appear to like her Quilava all that much for whatever reason. They just did an unofficial trade by handing each other the Pokéballs, and then my trainer quietly made himself disappear. Then it appears that when the girl registered me to her Pokédex and found out I was level five, she tossed the ball to the ground in anger and ran after my old trainer, so I popped out of the ball and was left there. Then I just walked off in a random direction, and ended up in that monsoon."

"Oh…" was all Mark could say. He paused, then added: "He must've been a selfish little brat."

"Yup," said Charmander and sighed.

* * *

He was beyond exhausted. He was even starting to slow down. He tried to order his legs to speed up again, but they refused and answered simply by collapsing under him. He helplessly crawled a bit on through the tall grass, and to his horror he realized that he was lost either way.

It was too painful…

He eyed the road and the cars just a few meters away, and made his hopeless decision.

* * *

"Hey," Charmander suddenly exclaimed, "did you hear something?"

"No," said Mark.

"It was just, you know, a small rustle…"

"Like a Pokémon?" Mark suggested hopefully.

"Yeah…"

Mark stopped and looked around the dry grass on both sides of the road. Something moved, just a few inches from the roadside.

He carefully came a bit nearer, and saw that it was a little brown furball with long, rabbit-like ears. A thick, creamy ruff covered its neck and a bushy tail extended from its backside. It was flailing around a bit, apparently trying to crawl but not really being successful.

"An Eevee!" Mark shouted so loudly that the Pokémon made a desperate, yet unsuccessful attempt to get up and run away before fainting with fear. He quickly realized the mistake of his over-excitement, and started thinking about his next problem.

"Why do I have to run across an Eevee just when I don't have any Pokéballs?" he moaned. "Just my luck…"

Exactly then, he caught a glimpse of something in the grass, a few meters away from the Eevee. It was a familiar red and white sphere…

He couldn't believe it. A Pokéball was lying there, exactly when he needed it.

He quickly walked over to it, bent down and picked up the ball. It felt cold and metallic; a few grass blades were glued to its wet surface by the water. But it would work just as well. He took aim at the Pokémon.

"Pokéball, GO!" he yelled, just like he had seen on TV.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Charmander jumped up and punched the ball away in the air so it missed its target.

"What was that for?" Mark groaned.

"What was it for?" Charmander snapped, raising up his tiny thumb. "One: He's unconscious." Charmander raised his forefinger, continuing: "Two: He's obviously too young to battle at all, don't you see how small he is?" He raised the third miniscule finger: "And three: He's in an absolutely terrible state; he's obviously been through hell before we came here." He lowered his hand firmly. "Don't you know the Agreement? If a Pokémon is caught while unable to put up a fair fight for its freedom, it is free to ignore or even attack its trainer until released back into the wild."

Mark blushed; of course he knew this. The Agreement between Pokémon and humans clearly stated that Pokémon must only be caught while they were still in proper condition to battle. He had forgotten all about it in the shock of seeing one of the most sought-after Pokémon in the world.

"Also," Charmander went on with folded arms, "he's young enough for me to strongly suspect that he shouldn't be wandering around on his own. I think he must have lost his mother."

Mark now felt terrible about his foolish longing to throw a metal ball at the little thing. It could've died; what was he thinking?

"A male, you say?" Mark questioned.

"Yeah," Charmander nodded.

Mark slowly walked towards the fainted Pokémon, bent down and touched the fur on the head. It was soft, thick and very smooth, but with a few twigs tangled in it. He brushed them off, and the Eevee's body twitched a bit.

Carefully, he picked the Pokémon up. Its body was warm; Mark felt weird holding it. He stroked a few times over the fur on the head with some soothing words, and to his delight found that Eevee's eyes opened a bit.

"Vuii!" he shrieked and weakly struggled to get away, but Mark held him tightly. Eevee seemed to find the warmth from a living body to be somewhat comforting and in the end just curled himself up in his arms.

For a few seconds, Mark just stood there like in a trance, but then snapped out of it.

"We'd better hurry to Cleanwater to get him help," he said to Charmander before breaking into a run. The lizard followed on his heels.

A lone Pokéball was left by the roadside.

* * *

**The Agreement**

In the world of this story, there is an agreement between Pokémon and humans called "The Agreement" that dictates what is and isn't acceptable in Pokémon training. In this version, it looks like this:

1. If a Pokémon is not in the state to battle due to age, injuries, or any other reason, it must not be caught. A Pokémon that is caught under these circumstances does not rightfully belong to its trainer, and is by law free. If the Trainer does not release the Pokémon to be permanently free from the Pokéball, the Pokémon may ignore or even lightly attack the Trainer if necessary in order for the Pokémon to gain its rightful freedom.

2. If a Trainer's Pokémon possesses an Attack capable of killing its opponent, it is on the Pokémon's own responsibility to dampen or aim its attacks so that they will not cause fatal injuries to another Trainer's Pokémon. Likewise, a Trainer may not command his or her own Pokémon to kill another Trainer's Pokémon in any case. For example, a Scyther may never aim its Slash at its opponent's neck, and a Flareon must keep its Flamethrower's temperature at a low enough level not to cause serious burns.

3. A Trainer's Pokémon may not in any case attack a human with the intention of killing or seriously injuring him or her. Likewise, a Trainer must never order his or her Pokémon to attack a human with the aforementioned intentions.

4. Pokémon battles should be a sport, and a sport only; they should not be used to settle personal disputes between Trainers, in order to humiliate another Trainer, or to threaten another Trainer.

5. If a Pokémon does not wish to battle for whatever reasons, its Trainer must not force the Pokémon to battle.

6. A Pokémon should never be seperated from its Trainer in any case if that is not the Pokémon's own will.

7. Pokémon shall never be punished for disobedience or failure to win. If physical punishment is attempted, the Pokémon is free to defend itself.

8. A Trainer must not let his or her Pokémon be without food, drink, or proper health care. If the Trainer does not have access to these primary needs, the Trainer must try to obtain them as soon as possible.

9. A Pokémon has equal rights, including freedom of speech, to a human.

10. Neither Trainers nor Pokémon may abuse the rights specified in this Agreement.


	5. Cleanwater City

**Chapter 4: Cleanwater City**

After ten minutes or so, Mark and Charmander arrived at the Cleanwater city Pokémon Center, panting.

Mark went straight up to the bell on the desk and hammered it with his hand until a red-haired nurse dressed in white, whose name was most likely Joy, came out of a room in the back.

"No need to be so harsh on the bell," she said serenely.

"I… I found this Eevee," Mark panted, attempting to catch his breath, and gently placed the little Pokémon, unconscious, on the desk. "He was fainted near the road to Sailance…"

"Sailance?" the nurse, whom Mark just decided to call Joy, questioned. "Isn't that out of the Pokémon-inhabited area?"

"Yes, it is, is Eevee going to be fine?" Mark asked very quickly.

"What was an Eevee doing there?" repeated Nurse 'Joy'.

"Should I know that?" Mark said loudly. "I asked: Is he going to be all right?"

Nurse Joy took out a small tool resembling a red cellphone, pointed it at Eevee and pressed a button. A little beep was heard before she took it and read off it.

"He's just exhausted, hungry and cold," Nurse Joy announced upon looking back at Mark, smiling. "He will be fine, but it could take some time to revive him. Just have a seat, and I'll alert you when something happens."

Mark sighed in relief as Nurse Joy took Eevee into the room at the back, then turned around and as he was now breathing normally again, he took some time to look around.

The floor was covered in a light pink, fluffy carpet. The room was very large, and at random places all over except in the direct path from the automatic door to the counter, there were big, comfy-looking red sofas. Several trainers sat in them, either chatting or just staring into thin air, waiting for their Pokémon to be healed.

Mark walked towards the nearest sofa, which was empty, and sat down there, tapping his foot impatiently while observing the room better. The walls were painted white, but covered in posters and advertisements about everything from the Ouen league and challenges for trainers to always carry Potions with them to cheap travel packages. Meanwhile, Charmander stood at the foot of the sofa, watching his tail flame burn.

The automatic door slid open, catching Mark's attention. A girl ran inside. She had long, brown hair and wore a pink sweater and a dark blue skirt.

She hurried to Nurse Joy, quickly handing her three of the Pokéballs attached to her belt, and then walked towards Mark's sofa and sat down in it, glaring anxiously at the back room where Joy was treating her Pokémon.

Seeing as Mark had nothing better to do and many things to ask, he decided to talk to the girl.

"Um, excuse me…" he said, turning carefully in her direction. She jerked her head in his direction, and upon realizing he was waiting for an answer, she replied with a dry "Hello".

"Do you live here?" Mark asked. The girl nodded.

"Can you tell me something about the Pokémon Gym here?"

The girl shrugged. "Sure. What would you like to know?"

"What type of Pokémon does the gym leader train?" Mark asked, happy to have managed to get to the point so quickly.

"Legendary Pokémon," she answered simply.

"_What?!_" Mark yelled so loudly that a few people stopped talking to stare at him. He lowered his voice, his face going red. "Erm… how does a Gym leader train Legendary Pokémon?"

The girl giggled. "You've never heard of Rick? He spent ten years of his life finding the Legendary Pokémon of all four regions. He got some hairs, feathers, whatever of them, and cloned the Legendaries for himself and his junior trainers. They don't train them much at all, though, so they're really low-leveled."

"Cloned? But that's illegal!" Mark protested.

"Super-clones are illegal," the girl corrected. "And only if they could wreck something. His Pokéballs prevent the Pokémon they hold from directly disobeying a command, making them harmless. He made the balls himself. He even got a special license allowing him to keep one super-clone, no higher than level ten, mainly for experimental purposes."

"But affecting Pokémon's free will is breaking the Agreement!" Mark argued. The girl just shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe, but Rick's got the police in his pocket. He's capable of world domination with all those legendary clones, and they know it only too well. As long as he isn't doing anything they absolutely have to do something about, they won't. They'd get completely screwed unless they attacked in hundreds."

"But he isn't about to do anything like that, is he?" Mark asked worriedly.

"Of course not, he's a respectable man with a little brother," said the girl.

"What's a little brother got to do with anything?" Mark questioned, puzzled.

"Their parents died in a car crash when Rick was fifteen, leaving him alone with his two-year-old brother," the girl explained. "Rick has been like a parent for his brother since then. Shows that he's responsible and knows what he's doing."

"Oh." Mark paused. "So he has them all?"

"Well, nobody knows, since he only uses the Kanto and Johto ones, but that's what they say."

"So, are all of the Legendaries at very low levels, then?" he then asked.

"Yeah, they don't go higher than level 15," the girl said. "And the more Pokémon a junior trainer has, the lower are their levels. The strongest ones are possessed by the junior trainers with the fewest Pokémon."

"Sounds balanced," Mark said.

"But remember that they're Legendaries after all," she warned him.

"OK, thanks," Mark said, and was about to ask something else when Nurse Joy stepped forward and pointed for both of them to come. Both kids stood up and walked towards the counter.

"Megan, your Pokémon have been fully healed," Nurse Joy said with a small bow, handing three Pokéballs to the girl, then turning to Mark, "and your Eevee is going to be in perfect battle condition tomorrow. The hotel is just round the corner, if you plan on staying there."

"Battle condition?" Mark questioned. "But isn't he too young to battle?"

"Technically, yes," Nurse Joy sighed. "But he's been battling, apparently. Got some Rattata bites and scratches. Goodness knows what he's been through…"

"Oh, okay," said Mark. "But I'll release him afterwards, right? He isn't caught in a Pokéball…"

"Well…" said Nurse Joy sadly, "I have to admit that I don't think that's a very good idea. He's been battling, but hasn't fared all too well. If he came across a Raticate or Sandslash…"

"You mean I should take him?" asked Mark, shocked.

"I mean that we should explain the situation to him when he wakes up, and ask him what he wants to do."

Mark didn't answer; he wanted to own an Eevee, of course, but tried not to because he knew then he'd be disappointed if Eevee rather wanted to be released.

"Is your Charmander fine?" Nurse Joy asked, smiling.

"Yeah," said Mark, snapping out of his thoughts. "Anyway, thanks. I'll come back tomorrow."

Next, Mark went to the Pokémart with Charmander. It looked a bit like the Pokémon center beside it; a big, white building with an automatic door and a dome-shaped roof, except that instead of the Pokémon center's red color, the Pokémart's roof was blue. Beside the door, a large sign clarified the building's identity.

Mark walked inside. To the left, there was a counter with a funnily-dressed punk guy behind it, busy claiming cash for people's purchases. To the right, metallic shelves with healing items, Pokémon food, and all sorts of Pokémon equipment stood in straight rows all the way to the back of the shop.

Mark examined the contents of the first shelf. They were healing items; to the far left, cheap Potions and status recovering items were stacked; then they gradually went more expensive as they went farther to the right. Mark grabbed a few of the purple and green spray bottles known as Potions, then walked a few steps on. Most of the things he wasn't all that interested in; this early on, they wouldn't be worth their price.

At the end of the row, he stared longingly at a little white box with a red cross on it; a Pocket healer, one could place a Pokéball into it and press a button, and the Pokémon inside would be refreshed with energy in an instant, besides gaining a boost to its natural recovering abilities while inside, being able to fully heal of all its wounds in a remarkably short time. Of course, this item was reserved for out-of-battle usage.

Unfortunately, the price tag contained the rather unattractive number of 98,000. Mark quit dreaming, and went on.

He browsed through the shelves. Stat-boosting items were for more advanced trainers, and he didn't want to buy TM and HM moves until he had planned his Pokémon a bit better. If Eevee would come with him, he would maybe buy an evolution stone for him; of course, he reminded himself as he walked past them, Eevee might not come with him at all, and might not want to evolve, or would rather evolve into Espeon or Umbreon.

The Pokédolls he wasn't too interested in, but near them were the Pokéballs and Pokéball belts, so Mark took one belt with six Pokéballs attached to it. Finally, he bought a bit of canned Pokémon food for Charmander and Eevee, and walked to the counter in order to pay. All this stuff put a huge dent into the money he had brought, but that was what the money was for, after all. He just hoped he had enough left for the hotel.

Once outside, Mark pressed the little buttons on the Potion bottles one by one, minimizing them to the right size to fit neatly into his backpack. He also put on his Pokéball belt. He checked his watch; it was six o'clock, and the rain had subsided. Finally, he stuffed the cans of Pokémon food into the bag; it was now getting full.

He eyed the hotel sign behind the shop, picked up his bag with a sigh and walked to the hotel, Charmander following him like a fiery ghost.


	6. The Lake of Purity

**Chapter 5: The Lake of Purity**

The hotel was a huge building that appeared to be entirely composed of glass from the outside. To Mark's pleasant surprise, he found a sign outside it announcing that Pokémon trainers paid half price.

He walked inside, not sure if Charmander was allowed outside a Pokéball, but just assuming he was. An elderly lady in a blue dress sat by the counter and read the newspaper. Her huge square glasses were on the edge of falling off the tip of her nose.

"Excuse me," said Mark. The woman looked up and observed him carefully, eying Charmander.

"Pokémon trainer?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"Yeah," answered Mark.

"How many nights?" she asked, turning slowly to a computer standing beside her.

"One to begin with," Mark said.

"Your ID number, please?"

Mark immediately realized that of course, he had forgotten to buy a Pokédex, and what was more, he had never actually read _Pokémon Training for Dummies_. Feeling stupid, he blushed and said: "Er, I don't have one yet."

"It's necessary to give your trainer ID before checking in," said the woman.

"I'll go to the Pokémart and buy a Pokédex, then, and come back afterwards," Mark suggested. The woman nodded and sank back into her newspaper.

Mark walked outside again, closely followed by Charmander. The clouds were slowly drifting away, predicting a starry night and good weather tomorrow.

"Well, there's always something you forget to buy," Mark sighed. "Charmander, would you like to go into your Pokéball now, or…?"

"Yeah, maybe, I'm getting tired of walking," said Charmander, relieved. Mark removed one of the red and white spheres attached to his Pokéball belt, maximized it by pressing the button, and touched Charmander gently with it. He was turned into red energy and drawn into the ball.

Mark went into the Pokémart, constantly reaching crazily down to check if the Pokéball was still there. He would just have to get used to it, but at the moment it was somehow really discomforting. Reassuring himself that his Pokémon was definitely still inside the Pokéball, Mark walked over to the fourth row of shelves, finding Pokédexes of various shapes, sizes and colors lined there. After a bit of thought, he picked a sapphire blue one with a white back, some red lines and signs for decoration and two flaps to fold in so that it would fit neatly into one's pocket. After paying almost all of his money left, he exited the shop, unfolded the Pokédex and turned it on.

"Thank you for choosing Pokédex Advance, Kyogre edition," said a voice with a British accent as if to test the sound. The screen turned light blue, and then displayed the words "Would you like to start the set-up now?"

Mark selected 'Yes' and pressed A.

"Please place your right eye in front of the scanner and press A," the screen now read, with a small picture showing with a red arrow where the scanner was placed – apparently, the Pokédex used the same tool to identify Pokémon as its owner's iris. Mark held it up to his eye, pressed the button blindly, and as he heard a beep, he removed it, blinked a few times and looked at the screen. It showed the words "MATCHING PATTERN – PLEASE WAIT" for a second, then all sorts of information about him appeared, including his name, home address, date of birth, education, bank account number, and even, to his horror, a school photo which he looked absolutely horrible on.

"Was I drunk when they took that?" he said to himself with disgust, then looked back at the screen. The information about him had been replaced with a big "Thank you for registering your Pokédex. Your ID number is 0439522166." Mark pressed A and now it showed the main menu, indicating that he wouldn't need to do anything else for the set-up.

Curiously, he selected the option 'About the Pokédex'. The voice immediately started speaking again.

"The Pokédex was invented by Professor Samuel Oak of Kanto. Its original purpose was, in Oak's words, 'to be an encyclopedia for the trainer to get more information about his or her Pokémon, and to automatically and safely record the data of any undiscovered Pokémon a trainer might see on his or her journey in order to tell fact from fiction when it comes to new Pokémon discoveries'. Since then, all sorts of useful features have been added to the Pokédex's potential and now it is the only essential tool a Pokémon trainer must have, combining the various devices that have been developed in the different parts of the world for all kinds of Pokémon-related purposes. After Oak retired, the development of the Pokédex was continued by his grandson, Gary Oak, who…"

Mark decided not to listen to all of it so he pressed B and the voice fell silent. Finally, to register Charmander to his ID number, he held the Pokéball up to the scanner and pressed A.

"Charmander – lizard Pokémon," the Pokédex announced. "It is very vulnerable to water; if the flame at the tip of its tail dies, so does this Fire Pokémon."

The screen then asked if he would like to view this Pokémon's stats; he chose 'No' and it showed the main menu again, except that now it said '**1** Pokémon caught' in the top left corner.

Mark turned the Pokédex off and walked into the hotel again.

"Back?" the woman asked, not looking off the newspaper. Mark nodded.

"So, your ID number?"

"0439522166," Mark said after turning his Pokédex on again to check. The woman entered it into the computer.

"Mark Greenlet?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"You said one night?"

"Yup," said Mark cheerfully. The woman handed him a key labeled with the number 387. Assuming that the Pokédex had handled the payment automatically, he walked up some staircases to room 387. It was small, but neat; everything in it was blue except for the walls. Blue bed sheets, blue lamp, blue carpet, blue curtains. He switched the light on.

Mark flung himself on the bed and sighed, letting his mind flicker across the day's adventures.

The Legendary Pokémon, of course, had most of his attention. He had set it as his goal to reach Green town in time to see Chaletwo. If only he could ever know what was up with its similarity to Mewtwo. Mark sighed again.

Why hadn't he ever found decent books on the Ouen Legendaries before? And why hadn't he found that book before?

His stomach made a loud gurgle to protest this stupid distraction from the bare necessities of life, and Mark rose lazily up.

"Let's get ourselves something to eat," he muttered, knowing that Pokémon could hear the outside world from inside their Pokéballs. He went down to the hotel's restaurant and Mark ordered a pizza for both him and Charmander to celebrate the first day of their journey after making carefully sure that Pokémon were allowed and that Charmander didn't mind trying human food.

"By the way," Mark asked as they started greedily attacking the pizza, "you never actually answered. Do you want to evolve?"

"Dunno," said Charmander as Mark took a sip of his coke. "I've heard that Pokémon can go through a huge mental change when they evolve."

"Yeah," said Mark eagerly; this was exactly one of the few things in Pokémonology he found to be very interesting. "It's because if Pokémon don't have very defined beliefs and a determined personality, their added power after evolution can result in arrogance, the sudden realization that humans are wimps, and just an overall change in their views on the world. It depends on you, really."

"I'm not sure, I don't want to change _mentally_… but I want to be strong, and to fly as a Charizard one day."

"They say that late evolution helps in these aspects," Mark commented. "Personality changes are usually biggest in Pokémon that evolve immediately when they can."

"Yeah," said Charmander absent-mindedly, watching a Pidgeotto flying outside the window. "That's probably best, just evolving when I'm properly ready…"

He looked at Mark. "I'm a bit nervous, though. What if I just reach level 16, evolve – and turn into a completely different person?" There was worry in his voice.

"You just need to resist it, you can stop your own evolution without much trouble," Mark said reassuringly.

"Yeah," said Charmander, sounding more comfortable. "You're probably right."

* * *

After they ate, Mark suggested that they would go up to the Lake of Purity and catch some Pokémon. Charmander liked the idea, so they decided on that.

"Charmander, look around for wild Pokémon too," Mark said, sending Charmander out of his Pokéball as he walked along the road to the Lake. Tall grass surrounded it in both directions; small bushes poked out of the grass here and there.

"What's that?" asked Charmander, pointing. A purple tail, curled up at the end, stuck out between the grass blades to their left.

"I think it's a Rattata," said Mark thoughtfully, "but I don't really want one, they're pretty puny…"

The Rattata seemingly took high offense to this comment, as it immediately leapt out of the grass, baring its fangs.

Mark had never really liked Rattata, but seeing one in real life, he found it kind of cool-looking. The shiny, bright purple fur of its back blended smoothly into the pure white of its belly, paws and head below the nose. Two long whiskers vibrated on either side of its face, sensing small changes in the air; shimmering red eyes full of determination stared hatefully at his face and then turned to Charmander with a low growl.

"Rattata!" the Pokémon cried in a high-pitched voice, leaping at Charmander, who quickly swished his tail forward into the purple rat's face. Smacked sideways with a burn mark on its cheek, the Rattata let out a cry of pain, but nevertheless stood right up again and raced head-first towards Mark's fire lizard.

"Dodge!" Mark shouted, suddenly now remembering that he was supposed to be giving his Pokémon orders. Charmander ran to the side, more of instinct than obedience. The Rattata followed angrily, and finally took a well-calculated leap at the lizard's tail, biting it firmly.

"Charmander, try scratching it," Mark suggested, Charmander already raising his claws. With an angry "Mander!", he slashed the Rattata across the face.

"Raaat!" screeched the rat Pokémon, stepping a bit backwards as it started to wag its tail rhythmically. Charmander's eyes followed the curled tail end; left, right, left, right…

"Don't be distracted by it, it's trying to catch you off guard!" Mark called. It was too late, though; the Rattata leapt at Charmander with a triumphant battle cry and tackled him to the ground. Growling, Charmander slammed his tail flame into the Rattata's face again; he was still too inexperienced to use proper fire attacks, but the fire on his tail tip was always there. The rat Pokémon screamed in pain, but then retreated into the tall grass.

Mark shrugged. "Well, I didn't want to catch it, anyway. At least, you did great, Charmander."

He said the last words in an attempt to sound cheerful, but he couldn't help thinking that his own part in this battle wasn't big.

* * *

When they arrived at the Lake of Purity, they found that it was crowded by tourists and trainers. Pokémon battles were going on all around; noisy Pokémon cries and their trainers' shouts filled the air.

A huge tourist information sign was positioned near the lake itself. Mark walked up to it, recalling Charmander into his Pokéball in fear of somebody tripping over him or something.

The sign told some useless facts about the Lake of Purity, like its size and how there were no rivers in or out of it – and then, the legend behind its purity, which was the only thing Mark was really interested in on it.

It was far longer than it had to be; it was basically an extremely dramatic description of how Suicune had saved the city, which was small then, by cleaning the lake and banishing the Gyarados that terrorized it. Since then, Suicune had raced all the way from Johto to purify the lake every night.

Mark realized that he had an extremely broad grin on his face and quickly told it to look normal. He looked back at the text. Below the legend, there were a few words that seemed especially directed at him:

_WARNING: Legendary Pokémon possess power that no human could dream of and should never be attacked, provoked or even approached. Travelers are advised to leave the Lake before nightfall._

The warning, of course, wasn't likely to convince many foolish people like Mark that trying to see Suicune wasn't worth the risk. Much more effective, however, were the "Missing" reports below, telling the reader of people who had seemingly just vanished into thin air near the Lake of Purity at nighttime, the only trace being a bit of red on the dried grass blades on the bank the next day.

Mark quickly decided he could just see Suicune sometime later and turned away from the sign. The crowd was thinning, so he had some space now. Mark threw Charmander's Pokéball to the ground and it popped open, releasing Charmander in a shower of red light before bouncing right back into his hand.

"Should we go into the tall grass?" Charmander asked, pointing at a patch of grass near the left side of the lake.

"No, I think we should try in the trees over there," said Mark, looking towards the right. Charmander shrugged.

They walked over to the trees and Mark picked up a small rock. Not bothering to aim very carefully, he threw it towards the nearest tree-top. Disappearing into the denseness of leaves and branches, the rock apparently angered one of the inhabitants of the tree; an annoyed chirp of "Pidgeoooott!" was heard as a streak of brown and crème shot upwards and then dived down towards Charmander.

"Uh oh," Mark muttered before issuing his command: "Charmander, dodge!"

The fire lizard attempted to duck, but the bird Pokémon grabbed him with its talons and took off into the sky.

"Hey!" Mark shouted. "Let go of my Charmander!"

The Pidgeotto grinned devilishly and flew over the lake, threatening in very clear sign language to drop the petrified Fire Pokémon into the water.

Mark knew that the pigeon wouldn't dare breaking the Agreement by murdering a trainer's Pokémon, but he didn't like being taunted in this way at all. His hand moved towards Charmander's ball.

"Pidgeotto," he announced loudly, "come back here and face me like a Pokémon!"

The Pidgeotto made a rude sign at him, at the same time emphasizing its false threat by releasing one claw off Charmander, who winced.

"You asked for it," Mark sighed, holding out the Pokéball and recalling Charmander into it before sending him back out with both feet on the ground. The Pidgeotto dived at Charmander again, but the lizard took both Mark and his opponent by surprise when he opened his mouth and released a cloud of silky flames which engulfed the unsuspecting bird Pokémon before it managed to turn. The pigeon's scream of pain died down quickly as it fell to the ground with a thump, scorched black.

"Whoa, nice Ember," Mark congratulated his Pokémon. "Good job, Charmander. Only too bad I didn't get to catch it."

"Sorry," said Charmander apologetically, sounding somewhat confused at the same time. "I didn't even know I could do that…"

"Yeah, seems like you've reached level seven," Mark explained. "Charmander learn Ember around that point."

"Hey, look," said Charmander, pointing. A yellow armadillo Pokémon with shiny scales was watching them curiously from a safe distance.

"Cool, a Sandshrew," Mark said, his expression brightening up. "Ground types are always useful, I'm going to try and catch it. Charmander, attack!"

They ran towards the Sandshrew. It curled up into a tight ball from instinct before the jet of flames Charmander fired from his mouth reached it, and the tough scales mostly repelled the heat. It showed no intentions of uncurling afterwards.

"I guess I'll have to resort right to the ball now," said Mark, rather loudly in order for the Sandshrew to hear him well, and then took out a Pokéball. He paused, waiting for reactions, but when there were none, he hurled the ball at the armadillo Pokémon.

The sphere hit the yellow, scaly ball, opened around the middle and the Sandshrew was transformed into pure energy before being drawn into the ball in a beam of red light.

The ball fell to the ground. First it was still, then the button glowed blue as the ball slowly started rocking to the sides. Mark watched it intensely, clenching his fists automatically as to telepathically prevent the ball from opening again. Gradually, the ball slowed down as the blue light on the button was fading…

The ball suddenly took a sharp twitch, its two halves separating again as Mark disappointedly watched the Sandshrew materialize on the ground. The armadillo Pokémon growled unsurely, realizing that just curling up and waiting was the worse option.

"Ember!" Mark ordered. Immediately, Charmander leapt forward and blasted a jet of flames from his mouth, which hit the Sandshrew before it managed to curl up again. Screaming, the Pokémon stumbled backwards and fell over.

"Let's see how well you break out of Pokéballs after that," Mark said, taking out a second ball and throwing it. As it hit the Sandshrew, the Pokémon was absorbed into the ball in the form of red energy before the two halves of the Pokéball closed tightly.

The ball fell to the ground and for the second time, Mark watched the button light up as the ball wobbled harshly in the grass. After a few seconds of fighting between the armadillo and the metallic sphere, the ball claimed victory; the blue light faded away and the Pokéball stilled with a ping, confirming Mark's first Pokémon capture.

"Wow," Mark breathed after a few seconds of silence, walking slowly towards the Pokéball and picking it up. The smooth, cold surface of the metallic sphere was wet, the grass it lay in still being covered in water after the earlier downpour. Mark got a creepy feeling when touching it; he actually felt that there was a Pokémon inside it.

He slowly took out his Pokédex and pointed the scanner at the Pokéball. Pressing a button, the Pokédex started speaking:

"Sandshrew – mouse Pokémon. It likes curling up into a ball for protection; its rock-hard scales can repel almost any physical attack. It is also an extremely fast digger."

Again, the Pokédex offered Mark the option of viewing the Pokémon's stats. This time he chose 'Yes'. The screen immediately showed detailed information about his new partner; it was a young male, level nine; it even announced that he had a careful nature.

"Sandshrew, go!" he shouted, tossing the ball forward. It burst open as it hit the ground and bounced back into his hand as his newly-captured Ground Pokémon formed from a red beam where the ball had landed.

"Shrew?" asked the Pokémon, confused, scratching its head. Mark was going to introduce him to Charmander when he felt a finger tap his shoulder.

"Hey," said a voice. He jumped, turning around. Sandshrew and Charmander looked around too.

It was a girl, probably around his age. Her most attention-catching feature was her long, blue hair; at the moment she had it tied in two weird ponytails which somehow stuck forward and outwards from her face. Her face looked rather plain, although she had an annoyed expression Mark sincerely hoped he had no part in. A dark blue sweater was visible beneath a white jacket; white shorts with an old-looking Pokéball belt covered her otherwise bare legs down to the knees.

"What are you staring at me for?" asked the girl, rather rudely. Mark felt idiotic.

"Erm… what was it you wanted?"

"A Pokémon battle," said the girl like it was the most obvious thing in the world, plucking one of the two balls from her belt. Mark felt rather confident; he had a level nine Pokémon after all.

"Two on two?" Mark questioned, nodding towards his companions.

"I'd prefer one on one, actually," said the girl, smiling the oddest smile Mark had ever seen. On her mouth's behalf, it was a normal smile, but her eyes had a glint of something between evilness, confidence and the kind of glint he usually got when he thought about Legendary Pokémon.

"Hey, wait," said Mark, looking at Charmander and Sandshrew, "this isn't fair. You've seen both of my Pokémon, but I haven't seen either of yours."

"Fine with me," said the girl, shrugging, as she grabbed her two Pokéballs, maximized them into either hand and threw them both to the ground. Two Pokémon formed in a flash of red light.

One was a huge butterfly, with a wingspan of around one meter. Its body was dark blue with a tint of purple; two bright red, compound eyes almost covered the top of the head, but the mouth was light blue with two miniscule fangs in it. In the same shade of light blue were two tiny arms and long feet. Broad, silkily whitish-transparent wings fluttered in the breeze; a fine system of dark veins covered their delicate surface.

The other Pokémon was a giant, metallic vulture; it stood considerably taller than its trainer on two narrow, yet powerful-looking legs. Talons that looked like they could crush bones to dust with little effort dug into the ground. It all shone in various shades of gray except for the bright red, peculiar, sword-like wing feathers. A long, sharp beak extended from its pointed head.

Mark felt even more confident seeing the girl's Pokémon. Both her Butterfree and Skarmory were vulnerable to fire attacks, so Charmander should beat whichever Pokémon she chose.

"Sandshrew, come back," he said, holding out Sandshrew's Pokéball and pressing the button. A red beam shot out of it, hitting the armadillo so that he dissolved into red light, and shot back into the ball.

The girl examined Charmander, and not taking her eyes off him, she took out one of her Pokéballs and returned her Butterfree into it. The two Pokémon left took their places and nodded towards each other.

"Skarmory, fly up!" commanded the girl loudly, suddenly speaking very fast and basically in a completely different tone of voice.

"Skaaaa!" screeched the vulture in a high-pitched, raspy voice before it clumsily took off from the ground. As it ascended, it gained better control of its flight and then rather gracefully circled above its trainer's head, watching Charmander.

"Man, are you slow?" said the girl impatiently. "Stop staring at Skarmory like that."

Mark blushed, envying the girl of being able to focus properly on the battle; he was too fascinated by the Pokémon themselves to concentrate.

"Uh, Ember!"

Before Charmander could do anything, the girl grinned devilishly. "I doubt anything less than a Flamethrower is going to hit Skarmory up there, you know."

Mark slapped his forehead and took a deep breath. Why couldn't he just think for once? That girl had probably paid more attention in each Battling Strategies class than he had ever done counting all of them together.

"Skarmory, peck it and then pull up, quickly!" the girl ordered. The steel bird obeyed instantly, swooping down at the fire lizard. Charmander automatically released a small cloud of flames from his mouth, but the Skarmory dodged the fire skillfully without much trouble and then jabbed its long beak into Charmander's stomach before shooting upwards again. The lizard tumbled over, almost setting fire to the grass but quickly stomping on it to put it out as he rose up again with difficulty.

"No, wait, Charmander – try lying low, and then the Skarmory can't get to you without crashing!" said Mark, getting a strategic idea. The girl smiled triumphantly as Charmander crouched down.

"I hope you will remember from now on that you should always take into account the possibility of TM moves," she announced before ordering in the Pokémon battle voice: "Swift!"

"Ska-a-a!" the steel vulture cried, flying high above Charmander and releasing a flurry of small, sharp metallic feathers from its body. Charmander was bombarded by them, getting cuts all over his back. Moaning, the lizard attempted to stand up, but failed. Mark felt terribly sorry for him, but he found a certain determination that made him want to at least try as hard as he could in his first trainer battle.

"I can keep this up for however long you like," said the girl calmly as her Skarmory released another blast of razor-sharp feathers. "You can just as well give up."

Mark shook his head, not liking this girl at all.

The girl sighed, rolling her eyes. "Another Swift, then."

Her Skarmory nodded loyally, preparing to shake off more steel feathers. Mark opened his mouth, just to say something, got a sudden idea and blurted out as quickly as he could:

"Melt them!"

Charmander used his last strength to lift his head; he spewed a cloud of flames upwards, enveloping the feathers, and for a moment, it seemed like Mark's plan was working.

Then, white-hot, but not melted, the feathers all fell through the fire, visibly tearing up Charmander's flesh like knives. He cringed in pain; Mark looked down, unable to watch what terrible torturing he was putting his friend through.

"You think a small Charmander's Ember is hot enough to melt Skarmory feathers?" asked the girl, raising her right eyebrow. "Man, you need to study."

No words were necessary; Mark just silently recalled the badly cut Charmander into his Pokéball, accepting defeat.

"Well – anyway, I've got loads of training to do now, I'm planning to challenge the Gym leader tomorrow…" said the girl, recalling her Skarmory – as Mark noted especially – without any compliments at all. She looked at him as if wondering if it would be appropriate to say goodbye, but then just turned swiftly around and hurried towards the city.

"What level is that Skarmory of yours, anyway?" Mark called after her.

"Seven," she shouted back, disappearing behind a hill.

Mark stared, feeling more than ever that he was completely lousy.

He sent out Charmander, who was still bleeding, and took one of the Potion bottles from his bag. Carefully, he sprayed it on the lizard's scratched skin, muttering constantly about how extremely sorry he was. The wounds slowly started to close right before his eyes.

"This feels good," Charmander said in relief. "Kinda tickling, but cooling and pain-easing. And pain is an inevitable result of any battling, so don't worry about it."

After a few more seconds, there were barely any traces of the cuts left. Mark looked up to find that he was alone with Charmander.

The clouds in the west were blood red, but it quickly faded into the purple and finally dark blue of the evening sky.

_I shouldn't be here_, Mark immediately thought, glancing at the missing reports on the tourist information sign and imagining his photo and name on it. Panicking, he looked at the lake.

The air chilled as a graceful, dark blue shadow rushed out from the forest to the right. The elegant, catlike shape stopped at the bank of the lake, to be illuminated by the moonlight which now flowed out after a cloud passed above.

The head, which now was to Mark's horror staring straight at him, belonged to a darkish blue feline. White, diamond-shaped spots covered the slender body. A crown-like crystal shape grew backwards out of its head. Two long, pearly white ribbons floated in mid-air by its sides, rippling gracefully like the ocean's waves. A long purple cloak which appeared to sprout from the base of its neck moved in similar soft waves.

"Suicune," Mark whispered, forgetting all about the missing reports; all that mattered was that he was right now looking at a Legendary with his own eyes. By his side, Charmander also stared, stunned, at the Legendary Pokémon.

That one moment seemed to last for hours. Then Suicune did what Mark could've sworn was a small bow or nod, and then a white paw carefully touched the water's surface. Instantly, Mark saw the purification spread out with the ripples. As suddenly as it had come, the graceful Pokémon sped back into the woods.

At that exact moment, a much more terrifying shape rose from the lake.

A dark blue, scaly monster or dragon, rising high above them, staring at Mark with terrifying, red eyes with the whites visible all around them, and a gaping, fanged mouth…

The Gyarados' roar drowned Mark and Charmander's screams, but as Mark was preparing to turn away, he quite clearly heard English coming from the monster:

"No! Don't leave!"

The Gyarados' voice sounded desperate, almost terrified.

"You – you can speak human?" Mark croaked.

"Yes, but that's irrelevant. What matters is that you stay here, understand?"

Mark slowly came a few steps forward, blindly obeying the beast without thinking about the possible consequences.

"No, don't come so near."

He stopped, confused.

"Step back!" the Gyarados ordered.

"Why?" Mark asked, puzzled and terrified at the same time.

"DON'T TEMPT ME!" the monster hissed.

Figuring that at least he could barely be worse off that way, Mark took three steps backwards.

"Tempt you how?"

"I don't want to lose you like the others before I even started explaining myself."

"What others?" Mark asked, nevertheless having a strong feeling about who they were. The Gyarados didn't answer; just jerked its head towards the tourist information sign with a pained expression. Mark felt sick.

"Look, that doesn't matter now. The only thing that matters is getting me out of this place."

"What…"

"I need to get out of Suicune's reach!"

"Suicune's?"

"SUICUNE IS A DAMN MURDERER!"

Mark was convinced that this Gyarados belonged in an insane asylum. "I don't understand…"

"It doesn't matter! What you do is catch me and get me to a Pokémon center. You must not tell anybody where you found me. You must never mention what happened here to anybody. If you just do that, I will serve you with all my might forever. Agreed?"

"But…"

"There's no time for questions!" the Gyarados hissed. "Just do it!"

Mark backed away.

"PLEASE!" The giant sea monster lowered its head to the bank with a few odd coughs, then looked up again, its eyes full of water. "Please…"

Mark stared open-mouthed at this turn of events. They were likely to be crocodile tears, of course, but the desperate tone in the Gyarados' voice throughout the conversation made them look a lot more real.

After all, it could barely hurt…

"O – okay…" Mark said doubtfully, taking out a Pokéball and throwing it as well as he could at the sea serpent's body. All of its gigantic shape was transformed into bright red energy which was then sucked into the ball as it bounced back to land on the bank. The ball didn't wobble; the monster wasn't showing any resistance at all. Instead the button's blue glow immediately faded away and the ball pinged.

He carefully walked over to the ball like the Gyarados could suddenly burst out of it, then bent down and had to collect his courage before touching it.

He turned around, to Charmander.

"Incredible, isn't it, how such a large Pokémon can fit into such a small ball?"

Charmander looked puzzled. "Uh, now that you mention it," he answered, "yeah, it's kind of weird. Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

"It's just…" Mark paused, trying to think of the right words for how weird he felt knowing he was holding a huge monster in his hands. "Oh, let's just go down and get him to a Pokémon center. Or her? Wait…"

He took his Pokédex out of the side pocket of his pack and pointed it at the Pokéball.

"Gyarados – atrocious Pokémon. Evolving from the weak Magikarp, Gyarados are known to sink ships on occasions. They are among the Pokémon that have dragon-like powers but do not have the genetical structure of a true Dragon Pokémon."

The statistics appeared on the screen upon Mark's command.

"OK, it's a he, at least. Level 20… I'll probably crush the Cleanwater City Gym with him…"

"Are you sure? The guy uses Legendary Pokémon, remember…"

Mark shrugged. "Perhaps. But Gyarados is a strong Pokémon, and… _holy Miltank_!"

"What?" asked Charmander, seeing that what shocked Mark so much was something the Pokédex said, and he wasn't tall enough to see the screen.

"Just look at those stats! They're much higher than what an average Gyarados is supposed to have. And look at this picture of a typical Gyarados – if you compare the color of the armor to the one I just caught, mine is much darker…"

"Odd," said Charmander simply, not that interested. "Shouldn't we go down to town and get Gyarados healed like he asked?"

Mark just shrugged, still with his mind on Gyarados' odd qualities.

Chapter 5: The Lake of Purity

The hotel was a huge building that appeared to be entirely composed of glass from the outside. To Mark's pleasant surprise, he found a sign outside it announcing that Pokémon trainers paid half price.

He walked inside, not sure if Charmander was allowed outside a Pokéball, but just assuming he was. An elderly lady in a blue dress sat by the counter and read the newspaper. Her huge square glasses were on the edge of falling off the tip of her nose.

"Excuse me," said Mark. The woman looked up and observed him carefully, eying Charmander.

"Pokémon trainer?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"Yeah," answered Mark.

"How many nights?" she asked, turning slowly to a computer standing beside her.

"One to begin with," Mark said.

"Your ID number, please?"

Mark immediately realized that of course, he had forgotten to buy a Pokédex, and what was more, he had never actually read _Pokémon Training for Dummies_. Feeling stupid, he blushed and said: "Er, I don't have one yet."

"It's necessary to give your trainer ID before checking in," said the woman.

"I'll go to the Pokémart and buy a Pokédex, then, and come back afterwards," Mark suggested. The woman nodded and sank back into her newspaper.

Mark walked outside again, closely followed by Charmander. The clouds were slowly drifting away, predicting a starry night and good weather tomorrow.

"Well, there's always something you forget to buy," Mark sighed. "Charmander, would you like to go into your Pokéball now, or…?"

"Yeah, maybe, I'm getting tired of walking," said Charmander, relieved. Mark removed one of the red and white spheres attached to his Pokéball belt, maximized it by pressing the button, and touched Charmander gently with it. He was turned into red energy and drawn into the ball.

Mark went into the Pokémart, constantly reaching crazily down to check if the Pokéball was still there. He would just have to get used to it, but at the moment it was somehow really discomforting. Reassuring himself that his Pokémon was definitely still inside the Pokéball, Mark walked over to the fourth row of shelves, finding Pokédexes of various shapes, sizes and colors lined there. After a bit of thought, he picked a sapphire blue one with a white back, some red lines and signs for decoration and two flaps to fold in so that it would fit neatly into one's pocket. After paying almost all of his money left, he exited the shop, unfolded the Pokédex and turned it on.

"Thank you for choosing Pokédex Advance, Kyogre edition," said a voice with a British accent as if to test the sound. The screen turned light blue, and then displayed the words "Would you like to start the set-up now?"

Mark selected 'Yes' and pressed A.

"Please place your right eye in front of the scanner and press A," the screen now read, with a small picture showing with a red arrow where the scanner was placed – apparently, the Pokédex used the same tool to identify Pokémon as its owner's iris. Mark held it up to his eye, pressed the button blindly, and as he heard a beep, he removed it, blinked a few times and looked at the screen. It showed the words "MATCHING PATTERN – PLEASE WAIT" for a second, then all sorts of information about him appeared, including his name, home address, date of birth, education, bank account number, and even, to his horror, a school photo which he looked absolutely horrible on.

"Was I drunk when they took that?" he said to himself with disgust, then looked back at the screen. The information about him had been replaced with a big "Thank you for registering your Pokédex. Your ID number is 0439522166." Mark pressed A and now it showed the main menu, indicating that he wouldn't need to do anything else for the set-up.

Curiously, he selected the option 'About the Pokédex'. The voice immediately started speaking again.

"The Pokédex was invented by Professor Samuel Oak of Kanto. Its original purpose was, in Oak's words, 'to be an encyclopedia for the trainer to get more information about his or her Pokémon, and to automatically and safely record the data of any undiscovered Pokémon a trainer might see on his or her journey in order to tell fact from fiction when it comes to new Pokémon discoveries'. Since then, all sorts of useful features have been added to the Pokédex's potential and now it is the only essential tool a Pokémon trainer must have, combining the various devices that have been developed in the different parts of the world for all kinds of Pokémon-related purposes. After Oak retired, the development of the Pokédex was continued by his grandson, Gary Oak, who…"

Mark decided not to listen to all of it so he pressed B and the voice fell silent. Finally, to register Charmander to his ID number, he held the Pokéball up to the scanner and pressed A.

"Charmander – lizard Pokémon," the Pokédex announced. "It is very vulnerable to water; if the flame at the tip of its tail dies, so does this Fire Pokémon."

The screen then asked if he would like to view this Pokémon's stats; he chose 'No' and it showed the main menu again, except that now it said '**1** Pokémon caught' in the top left corner.

Mark turned the Pokédex off and walked into the hotel again.

"Back?" the woman asked, not looking off the newspaper. Mark nodded.

"So, your ID number?"

"0439522166," Mark said after turning his Pokédex on again to check. The woman entered it into the computer.

"Mark Greenlet?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"You said one night?"

"Yup," said Mark cheerfully. The woman handed him a key labeled with the number 387. Assuming that the Pokédex had handled the payment automatically, he walked up some staircases to room 387. It was small, but neat; everything in it was blue except for the walls. Blue bed sheets, blue lamp, blue carpet, blue curtains. He switched the light on.

Mark flung himself on the bed and sighed, letting his mind flicker across the day's adventures.

The Legendary Pokémon, of course, had most of his attention. He had set it as his goal to reach Green town in time to see Chaletwo. If only he could ever know what was up with its similarity to Mewtwo. Mark sighed again.

Why hadn't he ever found decent books on the Ouen Legendaries before? And why hadn't he found that book before?

His stomach made a loud gurgle to protest this stupid distraction from the bare necessities of life, and Mark rose lazily up.

"Let's get ourselves something to eat," he muttered, knowing that Pokémon could hear the outside world from inside their Pokéballs. He went down to the hotel's restaurant and Mark ordered a pizza for both him and Charmander to celebrate the first day of their journey after making carefully sure that Pokémon were allowed and that Charmander didn't mind trying human food.

"By the way," Mark asked as they started greedily attacking the pizza, "you never actually answered. Do you want to evolve?"

"Dunno," said Charmander as Mark took a sip of his coke. "I've heard that Pokémon can go through a huge mental change when they evolve."

"Yeah," said Mark eagerly; this was exactly one of the few things in Pokémonology he found to be very interesting. "It's because if Pokémon don't have very defined beliefs and a determined personality, their added power after evolution can result in arrogance, the sudden realization that humans are wimps, and just an overall change in their views on the world. It depends on you, really."

"I'm not sure, I don't want to change _mentally_… but I want to be strong, and to fly as a Charizard one day."

"They say that late evolution helps in these aspects," Mark commented. "Personality changes are usually biggest in Pokémon that evolve immediately when they can."

"Yeah," said Charmander absent-mindedly, watching a Pidgeotto flying outside the window. "That's probably best, just evolving when I'm properly ready…"

He looked at Mark. "I'm a bit nervous, though. What if I just reach level 16, evolve – and turn into a completely different person?" There was worry in his voice.

"You just need to resist it, you can stop your own evolution without much trouble," Mark said reassuringly.

"Yeah," said Charmander, sounding more comfortable. "You're probably right."

After they ate, Mark suggested that they would go up to the Lake of Purity and catch some Pokémon. Charmander liked the idea, so they decided on that.

"Charmander, look around for wild Pokémon too," Mark said, sending Charmander out of his Pokéball as he walked along the road to the Lake. Tall grass surrounded it in both directions; small bushes poked out of the grass here and there.

"What's that?" asked Charmander, pointing. A purple tail, curled up at the end, stuck out between the grass blades to their left.

"I think it's a Rattata," said Mark thoughtfully, "but I don't really want one, they're pretty puny…"

The Rattata seemingly took high offense to this comment, as it immediately leapt out of the grass, baring its fangs.

Mark had never really liked Rattata, but seeing one in real life, he found it kind of cool-looking. The shiny, bright purple fur of its back blended smoothly into the pure white of its belly, paws and head below the nose. Two long whiskers vibrated on either side of its face, sensing small changes in the air; shimmering red eyes full of determination stared hatefully at his face and then turned to Charmander with a low growl.

"Rattata!" the Pokémon cried in a high-pitched voice, leaping at Charmander, who quickly swished his tail forward into the purple rat's face. Smacked sideways with a burn mark on its cheek, the Rattata let out a cry of pain, but nevertheless stood right up again and raced head-first towards Mark's fire lizard.

"Dodge!" Mark shouted, suddenly now remembering that he was supposed to be giving his Pokémon orders. Charmander ran to the side, more of instinct than obedience. The Rattata followed angrily, and finally took a well-calculated leap at the lizard's tail, biting it firmly.

"Charmander, try scratching it," Mark suggested, Charmander already raising his claws. With an angry "Mander!", he slashed the Rattata across the face.

"Raaat!" screeched the rat Pokémon, stepping a bit backwards as it started to wag its tail rhythmically. Charmander's eyes followed the curled tail end; left, right, left, right…

"Don't be distracted by it, it's trying to catch you off guard!" Mark called. It was too late, though; the Rattata leapt at Charmander with a triumphant battle cry and tackled him to the ground. Growling, Charmander slammed his tail flame into the Rattata's face again; he was still too inexperienced to use proper fire attacks, but the fire on his tail tip was always there. The rat Pokémon screamed in pain, but then retreated into the tall grass.

Mark shrugged. "Well, I didn't want to catch it, anyway. At least, you did great, Charmander."

He said the last words in an attempt to sound cheerful, but he couldn't help thinking that his own part in this battle wasn't big.

When they arrived at the Lake of Purity, they found that it was crowded by tourists and trainers. Pokémon battles were going on all around; noisy Pokémon cries and their trainers' shouts filled the air.

A huge tourist information sign was positioned near the lake itself. Mark walked up to it, recalling Charmander into his Pokéball in fear of somebody tripping over him or something.

The sign told some useless facts about the Lake of Purity, like its size and how there were no rivers in or out of it – and then, the legend behind its purity, which was the only thing Mark was really interested in on it.

It was far longer than it had to be; it was basically an extremely dramatic description of how Suicune had saved the city, which was small then, by cleaning the lake and banishing the Gyarados that terrorized it. Since then, Suicune had raced all the way from Johto to purify the lake every night.

Mark realized that he had an extremely broad grin on his face and quickly told it to look normal. He looked back at the text. Below the legend, there were a few words that seemed especially directed at him:

_WARNING: Legendary Pokémon possess power that no human could dream of and should never be attacked, provoked or even approached. Travelers are advised to leave the Lake before nightfall._

The warning, of course, wasn't likely to convince many foolish people like Mark that trying to see Suicune wasn't worth the risk. Much more effective, however, were the "Missing" reports below, telling the reader of people who had seemingly just vanished into thin air near the Lake of Purity at nighttime, the only trace being a bit of red on the dried grass blades on the bank the next day.

Mark quickly decided he could just see Suicune sometime later and turned away from the sign. The crowd was thinning, so he had some space now. Mark threw Charmander's Pokéball to the ground and it popped open, releasing Charmander in a shower of red light before bouncing right back into his hand.

"Should we go into the tall grass?" Charmander asked, pointing at a patch of grass near the left side of the lake.

"No, I think we should try in the trees over there," said Mark, looking towards the right. Charmander shrugged.

They walked over to the trees and Mark picked up a small rock. Not bothering to aim very carefully, he threw it towards the nearest tree-top. Disappearing into the denseness of leaves and branches, the rock apparently angered one of the inhabitants of the tree; an annoyed chirp of "Pidgeoooott!" was heard as a streak of brown and crème shot upwards and then dived down towards Charmander.

"Uh oh," Mark muttered before issuing his command: "Charmander, dodge!"

The fire lizard attempted to duck, but the bird Pokémon grabbed him with its talons and took off into the sky.

"Hey!" Mark shouted. "Let go of my Charmander!"

The Pidgeotto grinned devilishly and flew over the lake, threatening in very clear sign language to drop the petrified Fire Pokémon into the water.

Mark knew that the pigeon wouldn't dare breaking the Agreement by murdering a trainer's Pokémon, but he didn't like being taunted in this way at all. His hand moved towards Charmander's ball.

"Pidgeotto," he announced loudly, "come back here and face me like a Pokémon!"

The Pidgeotto made a rude sign at him, at the same time emphasizing its false threat by releasing one claw off Charmander, who winced.

"You asked for it," Mark sighed, holding out the Pokéball and recalling Charmander into it before sending him back out with both feet on the ground. The Pidgeotto dived at Charmander again, but the lizard took both Mark and his opponent by surprise when he opened his mouth and released a cloud of silky flames which engulfed the unsuspecting bird Pokémon before it managed to turn. The pigeon's scream of pain died down quickly as it fell to the ground with a thump, scorched black.

"Whoa, nice Ember," Mark congratulated his Pokémon. "Good job, Charmander. Only too bad I didn't get to catch it."

"Sorry," said Charmander apologetically, sounding somewhat confused at the same time. "I didn't even know I could do that…"

"Yeah, seems like you've reached level seven," Mark explained. "Charmander learn Ember around that point."

"Hey, look," said Charmander, pointing. A yellow armadillo Pokémon with shiny scales was watching them curiously from a safe distance.

"Cool, a Sandshrew," Mark said, his expression brightening up. "Ground types are always useful, I'm going to try and catch it. Charmander, attack!"

They ran towards the Sandshrew. It curled up into a tight ball from instinct before the jet of flames Charmander fired from his mouth reached it, and the tough scales mostly repelled the heat. It showed no intentions of uncurling afterwards.

"I guess I'll have to resort right to the ball now," said Mark, rather loudly in order for the Sandshrew to hear him well, and then took out a Pokéball. He paused, waiting for reactions, but when there were none, he hurled the ball at the armadillo Pokémon.

The sphere hit the yellow, scaly ball, opened around the middle and the Sandshrew was transformed into pure energy before being drawn into the ball in a beam of red light.

The ball fell to the ground. First it was still, then the button glowed blue as the ball slowly started rocking to the sides. Mark watched it intensely, clenching his fists automatically as to telepathically prevent the ball from opening again. Gradually, the ball slowed down as the blue light on the button was fading…

The ball suddenly took a sharp twitch, its two halves separating again as Mark disappointedly watched the Sandshrew materialize on the ground. The armadillo Pokémon growled unsurely, realizing that just curling up and waiting was the worse option.

"Ember!" Mark ordered. Immediately, Charmander leapt forward and blasted a jet of flames from his mouth, which hit the Sandshrew before it managed to curl up again. Screaming, the Pokémon stumbled backwards and fell over.

"Let's see how well you break out of Pokéballs after that," Mark said, taking out a second ball and throwing it. As it hit the Sandshrew, the Pokémon was absorbed into the ball in the form of red energy before the two halves of the Pokéball closed tightly.

The ball fell to the ground and for the second time, Mark watched the button light up as the ball wobbled harshly in the grass. After a few seconds of fighting between the armadillo and the metallic sphere, the ball claimed victory; the blue light faded away and the Pokéball stilled with a ping, confirming Mark's first Pokémon capture.

"Wow," Mark breathed after a few seconds of silence, walking slowly towards the Pokéball and picking it up. The smooth, cold surface of the metallic sphere was wet, the grass it lay in still being covered in water after the earlier downpour. Mark got a creepy feeling when touching it; he actually felt that there was a Pokémon inside it.

He slowly took out his Pokédex and pointed the scanner at the Pokéball. Pressing a button, the Pokédex started speaking:

"Sandshrew – mouse Pokémon. It likes curling up into a ball for protection; its rock-hard scales can repel almost any physical attack. It is also an extremely fast digger."

Again, the Pokédex offered Mark the option of viewing the Pokémon's stats. This time he chose 'Yes'. The screen immediately showed detailed information about his new partner; it was a young male, level nine; it even announced that he had a careful nature.

"Sandshrew, go!" he shouted, tossing the ball forward. It burst open as it hit the ground and bounced back into his hand as his newly-captured Ground Pokémon formed from a red beam where the ball had landed.

"Shrew?" asked the Pokémon, confused, scratching its head. Mark was going to introduce him to Charmander when he felt a finger tap his shoulder.

"Hey," said a voice. He jumped, turning around. Sandshrew and Charmander looked around too.

It was a girl, probably around his age. Her most attention-catching feature was her long, blue hair; at the moment she had it tied in two weird ponytails which somehow stuck forward and outwards from her face. Her face looked rather plain, although she had an annoyed expression Mark sincerely hoped he had no part in. A dark blue sweater was visible beneath a white jacket; white shorts with an old-looking Pokéball belt covered her otherwise bare legs down to the knees.

"What are you staring at me for?" asked the girl, rather rudely. Mark felt idiotic.

"Erm… what was it you wanted?"

"A Pokémon battle," said the girl like it was the most obvious thing in the world, plucking one of the two balls from her belt. Mark felt rather confident; he had a level nine Pokémon after all.

"Two on two?" Mark questioned, nodding towards his companions.

"I'd prefer one on one, actually," said the girl, smiling the oddest smile Mark had ever seen. On her mouth's behalf, it was a normal smile, but her eyes had a glint of something between evilness, confidence and the kind of glint he usually got when he thought about Legendary Pokémon.

"Hey, wait," said Mark, looking at Charmander and Sandshrew, "this isn't fair. You've seen both of my Pokémon, but I haven't seen either of yours."

"Fine with me," said the girl, shrugging, as she grabbed her two Pokéballs, maximized them into either hand and threw them both to the ground. Two Pokémon formed in a flash of red light.

One was a huge butterfly, with a wingspan of around one meter. Its body was dark blue with a tint of purple; two bright red, compound eyes almost covered the top of the head, but the mouth was light blue with two miniscule fangs in it. In the same shade of light blue were two tiny arms and long feet. Broad, silkily whitish-transparent wings fluttered in the breeze; a fine system of dark veins covered their delicate surface.

The other Pokémon was a giant, metallic vulture; it stood considerably taller than its trainer on two narrow, yet powerful-looking legs. Talons that looked like they could crush bones to dust with little effort dug into the ground. It all shone in various shades of gray except for the bright red, peculiar, sword-like wing feathers. A long, sharp beak extended from its pointed head.

Mark felt even more confident seeing the girl's Pokémon. Both her Butterfree and Skarmory were vulnerable to fire attacks, so Charmander should beat whichever Pokémon she chose.

"Sandshrew, come back," he said, holding out Sandshrew's Pokéball and pressing the button. A red beam shot out of it, hitting the armadillo so that he dissolved into red light, and shot back into the ball.

The girl examined Charmander, and not taking her eyes off him, she took out one of her Pokéballs and returned her Butterfree into it. The two Pokémon left took their places and nodded towards each other.

"Skarmory, fly up!" commanded the girl loudly, suddenly speaking very fast and basically in a completely different tone of voice.

"Skaaaa!" screeched the vulture in a high-pitched, raspy voice before it clumsily took off from the ground. As it ascended, it gained better control of its flight and then rather gracefully circled above its trainer's head, watching Charmander.

"Man, are you slow?" said the girl impatiently. "Stop staring at Skarmory like that."

Mark blushed, envying the girl of being able to focus properly on the battle; he was too fascinated by the Pokémon themselves to concentrate.

"Uh, Ember!"

Before Charmander could do anything, the girl grinned devilishly. "I doubt anything less than a Flamethrower is going to hit Skarmory up there, you know."

Mark slapped his forehead and took a deep breath. Why couldn't he just think for once? That girl had probably paid more attention in each Battling Strategies class than he had ever done counting all of them together.

"Skarmory, peck it and then pull up, quickly!" the girl ordered. The steel bird obeyed instantly, swooping down at the fire lizard. Charmander automatically released a small cloud of flames from his mouth, but the Skarmory dodged the fire skillfully without much trouble and then jabbed its long beak into Charmander's stomach before shooting upwards again. The lizard tumbled over, almost setting fire to the grass but quickly stomping on it to put it out as he rose up again with difficulty.

"No, wait, Charmander – try lying low, and then the Skarmory can't get to you without crashing!" said Mark, getting a strategic idea. The girl smiled triumphantly as Charmander crouched down.

"I hope you will remember from now on that you should always take into account the possibility of TM moves," she announced before ordering in the Pokémon battle voice: "Swift!"

"Ska-a-a!" the steel vulture cried, flying high above Charmander and releasing a flurry of small, sharp metallic feathers from its body. Charmander was bombarded by them, getting cuts all over his back. Moaning, the lizard attempted to stand up, but failed. Mark felt terribly sorry for him, but he found a certain determination that made him want to at least try as hard as he could in his first trainer battle.

"I can keep this up for however long you like," said the girl calmly as her Skarmory released another blast of razor-sharp feathers. "You can just as well give up."

Mark shook his head, not liking this girl at all.

The girl sighed, rolling her eyes. "Another Swift, then."

Her Skarmory nodded loyally, preparing to shake off more steel feathers. Mark opened his mouth, just to say something, got a sudden idea and blurted out as quickly as he could:

"Melt them!"

Charmander used his last strength to lift his head; he spewed a cloud of flames upwards, enveloping the feathers, and for a moment, it seemed like Mark's plan was working.

Then, white-hot, but not melted, the feathers all fell through the fire, visibly tearing up Charmander's flesh like knives. He cringed in pain; Mark looked down, unable to watch what terrible torturing he was putting his friend through.

"You think a small Charmander's Ember is hot enough to melt Skarmory feathers?" asked the girl, raising her right eyebrow. "Man, you need to study."

No words were necessary; Mark just silently recalled the badly cut Charmander into his Pokéball, accepting defeat.

"Well – anyway, I've got loads of training to do now, I'm planning to challenge the Gym leader tomorrow…" said the girl, recalling her Skarmory – as Mark noted especially – without any compliments at all. She looked at him as if wondering if it would be appropriate to say goodbye, but then just turned swiftly around and hurried towards the city.

"What level is that Skarmory of yours, anyway?" Mark called after her.

"Seven," she shouted back, disappearing behind a hill.

Mark stared, feeling more than ever that he was completely lousy.

He sent out Charmander, who was still bleeding, and took one of the Potion bottles from his bag. Carefully, he sprayed it on the lizard's scratched skin, muttering constantly about how extremely sorry he was. The wounds slowly started to close right before his eyes.

"This feels good," Charmander said in relief. "Kinda tickling, but cooling and pain-easing. And pain is an inevitable result of any battling, so don't worry about it."

After a few more seconds, there were barely any traces of the cuts left. Mark looked up to find that he was alone with Charmander.

The clouds in the west were blood red, but it quickly faded into the purple and finally dark blue of the evening sky.

_I shouldn't be here_, Mark immediately thought, glancing at the missing reports on the tourist information sign and imagining his photo and name on it. Panicking, he looked at the lake.

The air chilled as a graceful, dark blue shadow rushed out from the forest to the right. The elegant, catlike shape stopped at the bank of the lake, to be illuminated by the moonlight which now flowed out after a cloud passed above.

The head, which now was to Mark's horror staring straight at him, belonged to a darkish blue feline. White, diamond-shaped spots covered the slender body. A crown-like crystal shape grew backwards out of its head. Two long, pearly white ribbons floated in mid-air by its sides, rippling gracefully like the ocean's waves. A long purple cloak which appeared to sprout from the base of its neck moved in similar soft waves.

"Suicune," Mark whispered, forgetting all about the missing reports; all that mattered was that he was right now looking at a Legendary with his own eyes. By his side, Charmander also stared, stunned, at the Legendary Pokémon.

That one moment seemed to last for hours. Then Suicune did what Mark could've sworn was a small bow or nod, and then a white paw carefully touched the water's surface. Instantly, Mark saw the purification spread out with the ripples. As suddenly as it had come, the graceful Pokémon sped back into the woods.

At that exact moment, a much more terrifying shape rose from the lake.

A dark blue, scaly monster or dragon, rising high above them, staring at Mark with terrifying, red eyes with the whites visible all around them, and a gaping, fanged mouth…

The Gyarados' roar drowned Mark and Charmander's screams, but as Mark was preparing to turn away, he quite clearly heard English coming from the monster:

"No! Don't leave!"

The Gyarados' voice sounded desperate, almost terrified.

"You – you can speak human?" Mark croaked.

"Yes, but that's irrelevant. What matters is that you stay here, understand?"

Mark slowly came a few steps forward, blindly obeying the beast without thinking about the possible consequences.

"No, don't come so near."

He stopped, confused.

"Step back!" the Gyarados ordered.

"Why?" Mark asked, puzzled and terrified at the same time.

"DON'T TEMPT ME!" the monster hissed.

Figuring that at least he could barely be worse off that way, Mark took three steps backwards.

"Tempt you how?"

"I don't want to lose you like the others before I even started explaining myself."

"What others?" Mark asked, nevertheless having a strong feeling about who they were. The Gyarados didn't answer; just jerked its head towards the tourist information sign with a pained expression. Mark felt sick.

"Look, that doesn't matter now. The only thing that matters is getting me out of this place."

"What…"

"I need to get out of Suicune's reach!"

"Suicune's?"

"SUICUNE IS A DAMN MURDERER!"

Mark was convinced that this Gyarados belonged in an insane asylum. "I don't understand…"

"It doesn't matter! What you do is catch me and get me to a Pokémon center. You must not tell anybody where you found me. You must never mention what happened here to anybody. If you just do that, I will serve you with all my might forever. Agreed?"

"But…"

"There's no time for questions!" the Gyarados hissed. "Just do it!"

Mark backed away.

"PLEASE!" The giant sea monster lowered its head to the bank with a few odd coughs, then looked up again, its eyes full of water. "Please…"

Mark stared open-mouthed at this turn of events. They were likely to be crocodile tears, of course, but the desperate tone in the Gyarados' voice throughout the conversation made them look a lot more real.

After all, it could barely hurt…

"O – okay…" Mark said doubtfully, taking out a Pokéball and throwing it as well as he could at the sea serpent's body. All of its gigantic shape was transformed into bright red energy which was then sucked into the ball as it bounced back to land on the bank. The ball didn't wobble; the monster wasn't showing any resistance at all. Instead the button's blue glow immediately faded away and the ball pinged.

He carefully walked over to the ball like the Gyarados could suddenly burst out of it, then bent down and had to collect his courage before touching it.

He turned around, to Charmander.

"Incredible, isn't it, how such a large Pokémon can fit into such a small ball?"

Charmander looked puzzled. "Uh, now that you mention it," he answered, "yeah, it's kind of weird. Why are you suddenly asking about that?"

"It's just…" Mark paused, trying to think of the right words for how weird he felt knowing he was holding a huge monster in his hands. "Oh, let's just go down and get him to a Pokémon center. Or her? Wait…"

He took his Pokédex out of the side pocket of his pack and pointed it at the Pokéball.

"Gyarados – atrocious Pokémon. Evolving from the weak Magikarp, Gyarados are known to sink ships on occasions. They are among the Pokémon that have dragon-like powers but do not have the genetical structure of a true Dragon Pokémon."

The statistics appeared on the screen upon Mark's command.

"OK, it's a he, at least. Level 20… I'll probably crush the Cleanwater City Gym with him…"

"Are you sure? The guy uses Legendary Pokémon, remember…"

Mark shrugged. "Perhaps. But Gyarados is a strong Pokémon, and… _holy Miltank_!"

"What?" asked Charmander, seeing that what shocked Mark so much was something the Pokédex said, and he wasn't tall enough to see the screen.

"Just look at those stats! They're much higher than what an average Gyarados is supposed to have. And look at this picture of a typical Gyarados – if you compare the color of the armor to the one I just caught, mine is much darker…"

"Odd," said Charmander simply, not that interested. "Shouldn't we go down to town and get Gyarados healed like he asked?"

Mark just shrugged, still with his mind on Gyarados' odd qualities.


	7. The Mammal, the Monster and the Mental C

**Chapter 6: The Mammal, the Monster and the Mental Change**

Mark walked silently with his Pokémon towards the city. He was still afraid of what he held in his Pokéball, attached to his own belt.

This Gyarados was strange. Too strange. The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. Yet, Gyarados was more likely to be dangerous to him if he attempted to release him. Mark was stuck in an odd situation – and perhaps a serious one at that, if the sea monster would wreck something. He found it absurd that a few minutes earlier, he had been thinking "It can barely hurt, can it?" Of course it could hurt. It was a Gyarados. What if he went berserk at the Pokémon center or something?

"Uh, Mark?" Charmander asked carefully.

"What?" Mark replied, snapping out of his thoughts.

"We're here," the lizard pointed out.

"Oh," said Mark stupidly, looking around. They were in front of the Pokémon Center again; it looked somehow safer in the dark with the fluorescent lighting of the roof, made to help trainers find it.

Stepping inside to be greeted by the warmth, Mark noticed that there were still quite a few trainers sitting in the red sofas, tapping their feet or just staring into the air in a kind of a trance while their Pokémon got healed. Mark imagined how it must be to wait anxiously for the nurse to try to heal a severely injured Pokémon, not knowing if it would live or die… he would never, ever let Charmander get hurt so much again. He would rather give up.

He walked with Charmander on his heels across the room, and to the desk, where the red-haired nurse was currently standing, waiting for more patients.

"Good evening. You're out late," she said in her trademark soft voice.

"Hi, I'd like to have my three Pokémon treated overnight," Mark said.

"I don't think that's necessary…" Charmander began, but Mark just picked him up and put him on the desk, looking him in the eyes.

"That Potion was just temporary," he explained. "You're still worn-out after the battle and the cuts haven't fully healed; it would be better if you stayed here for the night. You'd have to be inside your Pokéball, anyway, since I doubt the hotel would allow a Pokémon with a flame on its tail to sleep in one of their rooms."

Charmander shrugged. "Well, guess it's best, then. See you tomorrow."

Mark nodded, touched his lizard lightly with the Pokéball and he was dissolved into red energy and sucked into the ball. Plucking the two other occupied spheres from his Pokéball belt, he handed them to the nurse.

"Come back tomorrow for them," she said, smiling. Mark felt alone as he walked out of the Pokémon Center.

* * *

He came to the hotel. A few of its windows were still illuminated from the inside, but most were dark. All the Pokémon trainers the hotel was usually full of were either at the Pokémon center, out trying to catch nocturnal Pokémon or they had gone to bed already, hoping to start the next day early.

Mark entered quietly, going up the stairs to his room. Just like it had been odd when Charmander first went into his Pokéball, it was odd when he was being treated at the Pokémon Center.

Mark sighed, and couldn't wait to retrieve his partners next day.

* * *

"Here are your Pokémon. Eevee is still inside, sleeping. I have a concern about your Gyarados, though…"

Mark was in the Cleanwater city Pokémon Center after a breakfast at the hotel, getting his Pokémon back. It was rather early in the morning, and currently Mark was the only trainer there.

"What is it?" Mark asked, worried. Had Gyarados attacked somebody? Wrecked the healing machine?

"He suffers from severe lack of nutrition," the nurse explained. "What have you been feeding him, anyway?"

"Nothing," said Mark truthfully. "I just got him."

"I figured that had to be it," said Nurse Joy, nodding thoughtfully. "Your other Pokémon aren't underfed at all, so it seemed sort of odd that you would starve him."

"What can I do about it?" asked Mark concernedly. Maybe that was why Gyarados wanted to get out of the lake? Just to eat? No, he had talked about getting out of Suicune's reach…

"I fed him very nicely," said the nurse, smiling. "After eating, he even said – in English, mind you; that's quite some Pokémon you got! – that I was the second-nicest human in the world, after you." She giggled.

"Huh? After me?" Mark was puzzled; he hadn't thought Gyarados liked him so much just because he brought him to a Pokémon Center.

"Yes. You must have earned his respect very well; most Gyarados are quite overwhelmed by their power when they evolve and are some of the most arrogant, impolite Pokémon you'll ever see – he isn't like that at all."

"Well, that's good," Mark said, brightening up. To think of it… Gyarados would actually obey and be his strongest Pokémon…

"Anyway, shouldn't we wake Eevee?" the nurse suggested, gesturing for him to follow her. They walked into the room at the back; it was all dark blue and seemed cold, very unlike the warm, fluffy pink and red of the waiting room. In a cardboard box with blankets in standing on a table, Mark saw the furred creature he had found the day before, fast asleep and content, with his thick tail wrapped around his body.

"Eevee," Nurse Joy said sweetly, "time to wake up."

She gently reached down and touched the Pokémon's fur carefully. Eevee stirred, licked her hand friendly and then opened his gleaming brown eyes. He noticed Mark with an expression of curiosity and, unless Mark was very much mistaken, some level of gratefulness.

"Remember me?" asked Mark slowly, offering his hand. Eevee carefully reached up with his nose, sniffing his fingers, then stroked his head up to his hand. Mark started scratching him behind his ear; Eevee gave a soft "vee" and then started licking his hand too. Mark looked up at Nurse Joy; she was smiling.

"He's really friendly and trusting; he will probably be a good Pokémon for you if he wants that. I haven't mentioned it; perhaps you should explain the situation now."

"OK…" Mark started nervously, withdrawing his hand as to keep Eevee unbiased. "Erm… Eevee, do you have a home?"

The Pokémon's ears dropped as he shook his head sadly.

"Would you like me to… take you with me?"

Eevee instantly nodded excitedly.

"And… um… I'm a Pokémon trainer, you see…"

"Vii?" asked the small Pokémon, tilting his head.

"Don't you know what a Pokémon trainer is?"

Eevee shook his head and looked up at Mark curiously.

"That's a person who… er, keeps Pokémon inside little balls, like these." Mark removed Charmander and Sandshrew's Pokéballs from his belt and showed them to Eevee, minimized.

"See, then you can make them inflate, like this…"

Mark pressed the buttons and the spheres instantly maximized into battle-size. Eevee started, taking a small jump backwards inside the box. Mark laughed.

"There's nothing to be afraid of. Come on, the balls won't bite."

Eevee carefully touched the cold, metallic surface of Charmander's ball with the tip of his nose. He shivered, apparently still finding that thing a bit creepy, but with a small nod he confirmed his acceptance of the Pokéballs.

"Okay, now, don't be scared…" Mark carefully dropped the balls into Eevee's box; they both opened and the two Pokémon formed in red light beside Eevee before the balls bounced right back into Mark's palms.

This was something Eevee clearly found a lot harder to accept, which was no more than Mark had expected; his eyes widened from the shock of seeing two Pokémon materialize from thin air right beside him. Eevee pressed himself against the wall of the box, moaning nervously as he covered his eyes with his long ears. Charmander and Sandshrew looked confusedly around; Charmander soon realized what was going on, carefully bent down to Eevee's level and cautiously lifted one of his ears from his face. A terrified eye half-opened, then shut again as the Pokémon forced its ear back down. Sandshrew curiously poked Eevee's thick, soft mane; Charmander started to pat Eevee's back reassuringly.

"It's all right," Mark said quietly, now placing his hand carefully on the scared Pokémon's head. "Look." He brushed Eevee's ears away, and pointed both Pokéballs at the Pokémon they belonged to; Charmander and Sandshrew both dissolved into red light as they shot back into the balls.

"Now," Mark began explaining as Eevee started to calm down, "a Pokémon trainer carries Pokémon in balls like these, and when he sees a Pokémon or another trainer, he uses his Pokémon to battle."

Eevee looked expectantly up at him, waiting to hear more.

"He sends out his Pokémon from the balls – only one at a time – and they battle the other Pokémon or trainer's Pokémon. If his Pokémon are getting too hurt, he will recall them back into the ball. A Pokémon trainer will always heal his Pokémon as soon as possible when they are hurt, and make sure they get plenty of food and never suffer permanent injuries."

Mark had never in his life thought about what Pokémon training actually was – yet now, he was telling it to an innocent, young Pokémon that hadn't had a mother for long enough to learn about these things. It felt odd.

"Then…" Mark's voice was trembling for some reason, "… the trainer… well, usually… becomes really close to the Pokémon – a type of friend who takes really good care of them and loves them like his own siblings... and usually, the Pokémon will feel like that too…"

Eevee's shiny, big eyes still looked happily up at Mark's deep green ones; he took a deep breath before asking the final question.

"So… will you… do you want me to train you? Don't think about what I want, just what you want. Do you want to be released back into the wild where you can continue your life, or do you want to… come with me and I'll be your trainer?"

Hot pulse throbbed in Mark's neck with every beat of his heart; they sounded unnaturally loud now as the boy and the Pokémon stared deep into each other's eyes; nothing could be read from either's expression.

"Veee!" Eevee finally said happily, nodding and placing his forepaws in Mark's hands. He picked the Pokémon carefully up, unable to believe he actually had an Eevee now. The fluffy Pokémon emitted some sort of a purr, digging his nose into Mark's face.

"Eevee…" Mark started in a muffled voice because of the fur covering his mouth, "if you're going to be my Pokémon, you need to go into a Pokéball."

"Vee?" the Pokémon questioned. Not having very good control of Pokémon's complicated language due to young age, he managed to get his meaning across, but not word for word.

"Yes, see, sometimes I can't carry you with me otherwise. Pokéballs are nice, just like a luxury room with everything you need, you'll even feel all dreamy and comfortable, and when you're sent out, you'll be refreshed, just like you were sleeping." Mark knew this in fact because that time he had discussed Pokémon rights with a Vulpix in a Pokémonish test, one of the things they had talked about was whether it was right to capture Pokémon in Pokéballs, and Vulpix, who was pro-Pokéballs, had described to him what Pokéballs were like.

"Vui," said Eevee skeptically, glancing at the Pokéballs Mark had replaced at his belt. Finally he looked up at Mark, seemingly still a bit scared of the balls. Mark took one of his empty balls and touched Eevee lightly with it; the Pokémon dissolved into red light and was drawn into the ball.

Mark waited a few seconds; the ball stood quite still in his hand, meaning that at least Eevee wasn't trying to break out of it.

He dropped the ball into the box again; a beam of red energy burst out of it and took shape into Eevee. He looked quickly around, realized that he was back in the box and then accepted the Pokéball with a small nod.

"Great," said Mark, still not believing what was happening. Him, with an Eevee!

"Will you come into the Pokéball now, then?" he asked upon realization that Eevee was waiting for him to say something else. The Pokémon thought a bit, but then nodded, smiling. Mark recalled Eevee into the Pokéball, convinced that he was the luckiest person alive.

"Erm… thanks, Nurse Joy," Mark muttered, not sure what to say. She just smiled. "It's Eevee who's going to come with you, thank him."

"Wow," he just breathed.

"So, where are you headed now?" asked Nurse Joy kindly.

"The Gym," Mark said, still staring at the Pokéball in his hand.

"Good luck, then. You'll need it," were Nurse Joy's warning words before Mark left the building.

Absent-mindedly, he walked out of the Pokémon Center, noticing that he was getting used to having his Pokémon inside Pokéballs. The sun was shining now; the stormy clouds from the day before had drifted away overnight and now the sky was clear.

He wandered around a bit, looking for the Pokémon Gym, but once he found it, he was surprised he hadn't figured that huge yellow building with the glass dome roof he could always see behind the other houses had to be the Gym.

The door was odd; it was round and shaped like a Pokéball lying on the side. The button that would normally maximize the ball said "PRESS". When Mark nervously pushed it with his hand, the two halves of the door separated and moved to the sides with a rumbling noise. Mark carefully stepped inside; he heard the door slide back into place behind him.

Now there was no turning back. He took a deep breath and walked forward, through a second gateway; the entrance room was just empty for whatever reason.

He was on a Pokémon battle arena, that was certain, and an overwhelmingly huge one at that. The glass dome was three times as high as the ceiling in a regular house, and the room had all the features a standard battle arena had to have; a large pool on the right side that was obviously intended for Water Pokémon, and the way the floor was marked had a very clear meaning. Just ahead of him was the red-painted box he was supposed to stand in. He nervously took his place; a trainer stood up from a bench at the other end and stepped into the box at his end. Mark found his clothes very odd: a cap that seemed too big for his head, a jacket and shorts, all bright neon green.

"Hey, you have to battle me first, Rick will only take on the best of the best," the boy called in an extremely monotone, boring, politician-like voice.

"I wasn't going anywhere!" Mark shouted back. The trainer ignored it.

"Three on three, ready, go, Articuno."

The boy hurled forward a black and red Pokéball with as much power as he could; it burst open in mid-air, releasing Mark's second favorite Pokémon, and bounced back to the trainer.

A smooth, peaceful-sounding cry of "a-ar" emitted from the magnificent, parrot-like icy blue bird as it circled the middle of its own half of the arena, dragging a darker blue, wavy tail feather after its body. Swooping gracefully down every now and then but pulling up again, the Legendary Pokémon loyally awaited its trainer's orders. It pained Mark to think that the Pokéball had brainwashed his second favorite Pokémon like that – thankfully just a clone.

Mark hesitated, but then decided that sending out Charmander would be worth the risk. He blindly reached for the Pokéball and threw it forward. The ball popped open upon impact with the floor and sent out the lizard.

"Mander!" he growled, assuming a battle stance and glaring at the Articuno, focusing. Mark could figure out what was going through his Pokémon's head; the last time he had been put up against a Pokémon he was supposed to have an advantage over, he had lost. He wasn't going to go down a second time.

"Charmander, be ready to dodge!"

The lizard nodded, still concentrating on his opponent.

"Articuno, Powder Snow," said the junior trainer in his monotone voice.

The Legendary bird's eyes closed as it glowed white; the room cooled gradually as every flap of its wings and every wave of the long tail feather started emitting flurries of snow which flew straight at Charmander. Mark shivered as the cold wind blew in his face. Even before he opened his mouth to issue a command, Charmander seemed to read his mind and breathed a tongue of flames at the snow, melting and boiling it instantly and leaving Charmander unharmed.

The junior trainer swore loudly, still in the monotone voice, and then ordered: "Articuno, Gust."

Instantly, the magnificent bird started flapping its wings in Charmander's direction instead of up and down, and also faster and faster. In a remarkably short time, a strong gust of wind powered up and sent both Mark and Charmander flying into the wall.

"Sorry," said the junior trainer, not sounding it. "Peck!"

The Articuno clone immediately dived down with a cry of "Aaaarti!", heading straight towards Charmander. Mark had no time to think, but luckily Charmander spat out a blast of flames by instinct just as the bird was about to hit him. For a second Articuno was on fire, and unfortunately that was the exact second when its beak smashed into Charmander's belly so that he was thrown harshly backwards; but when the flames died, the Legendary bird crashed clumsily on the ground.

Stretching out both of its wings, Articuno's icy feathers were clearly dripping with water as it withered in pain; Charmander stood heavily up and despite hating to do this to a Pokémon he loved so much, Mark made a final command:

"Finish it with another Ember!"

Articuno was helplessly trying to take off, but failing. Charmander fired another cloud of flames which enveloped the Legendary Pokémon; when it cleared, Articuno lay in a pool of water on the floor, defeated.

The junior trainer grumpily recalled the half-melted bird.

"Go, finish off that overgrown salamander."

He threw forward another Pokéball, black with glowing red stripes like the previous one. Out of it came spiky-feathered Legendary bird that Mark recognized immediately as Zapdos.

It opened its long beak as the pitch-black and shocking yellow thunderbird ascended through the air, letting out an electrical cry of "Dooos!"

"Charmander, quick, uh…"

Mark didn't have the time to make an order; Zapdos fiercely flapped its wings without a command and released a bolt of lightning which shot down and hit Charmander. He screamed in pain, then went stiff and fell down to the floor like a stone statue.

"Charmander! Are you all right?" asked Mark worriedly. Since there was no response, he was forced to recall his Pokémon and wait until he would be able to heal him.

"Go, Sandshrew!" Mark did this without much thought; Sandshrew seemed like the obvious one since he was a Ground Pokémon and therefore immune to Electric attacks, but immediately after the yellowish brown armadillo materialized on the floor, he realized how foolish a decision it had been; Sandshrew wouldn't be able to harm Zapdos either unless it came near enough for him to scratch it.

"Drill peck," said the junior trainer dully. Immediately, the thunderbird let out another cry towards Sandshrew as it prepared to dive.

"Sandshrew, Defense curl!" Mark ordered quickly, that being just about the only thing he could do. The armadillo Pokémon locked tightly up in a knot in an amazingly short time; Mark quickly looked up to watch Zapdos again. The spiky bird now started spinning like a drill in mid-air and then dove towards Sandshrew at high speed, jabbing him with its beak. The curled-up Sandshrew rolled like a soccer ball from the impact; Mark automatically blocked the path with his foot. Immediately, the armadillo uncurled, seemingly unharmed, and focused on Zapdos again, although, as Mark couldn't help noticing, with a complete lack of determination.

Zapdos swooped down again without an order. Likewise, Sandshrew curled up without Mark having the time to say anything. This time, though, Sandshrew rolled himself powerfully out of the way. Zapdos barely avoided crashing, pulled up and was clearly getting ticked off by now. With yet another electrified "Do-o-os", the thunderbird started zooming back and forth near the ceiling, gaining speed as it went and soon turning into a blurred streak of yellow and black before it lunged down at Sandshrew again. The armadillo Pokémon didn't have time to curl up again, and being stabbed with Zapdos' long, spear-like beak in his vulnerable white underbelly was too much. Letting out a piercing cry, Sandshrew was thrown a bit backwards, but then collapsed, his chest bleeding disturbingly much.

"Oh God," Mark muttered, still unable to do anything about it but just recall the Pokémon and hope he would be all right. Now it was facing the next problem.

Mark automatically grabbed Eevee's Pokéball, but hesitated. Eevee was so young, and had immediately started to trust him out of childish innocence. How could he let Eevee get as badly injured as Charmander and Sandshrew?

He couldn't.

His hand moved to Gyarados' ball, plucked it off his Pokéball belt, and threw it at the pool, biting his lip. Sending out a Gyarados against an Electric Pokémon? He had to be going crazy.

Gyarados took shape out of the red light as Mark's Pokéball bounced back into his hand. An intimidating roar sounded from the sea monster, visibly unnerving even the Legendary Pokémon.

"Thunderbolt," said the junior trainer, smirking. Zapdos prepared to do the same thing as on Charmander, but the most that happened were a few sparks that shot between its wing feathers.

"Dos!" growled the Legendary with a hint of annoyance, attempting to charge up electricity again. Mark's mind raced. Zapdos was probably tired after the battle with Sandshrew; did Gyarados perhaps have a chance?

"Dragon rage!" Mark roared. Gyarados raised his head and, letting out another ear-splitting roar, he fired a jet of crimson red, dark flames from his mouth.

The blast hit Zapdos powerfully. The bird stayed in the air for a second, stiff; then with a weak "dos…" it fell to the floor. A smile broke out on Mark's face; Dragon rage was a very, very powerful attack at this stage of his journey, because it always hurt exactly as much, completely independent on the user's strength or any kind of weaknesses and resistances. That meant that the attack's outcome depended purely on the victim's ability to endure pain – a weak, inexperienced Pokémon, such as most of the ones he was facing now, would therefore fall unconscious from being subjected to it once. He was just remembering this now – some of Mrs. Grodski's classes appeared to have sunk in after all.

He grinned. He would sweep this Gym's floors with Legendaries, all on account of Gyarados' Dragon rage attack.

"Zapdos, return," said the junior trainer dully, holding the Pokéball forward and recalling the battered bird. "Go… Moltres…"

From the junior trainer's expression and even duller tone in these words, he was also well aware of how powerful Dragon rage was against such low-leveled Pokémon. He threw the Pokéball with less enthusiasm than before; the golden phoenix that was the third and last of the Legendary birds of Kanto burst out of it in a flash of red light.

"Mooool!" the swan-like bird cried, smoothly ascending into the air and leaving a trail of flames behind from its fiery wings and tail. When it was just slightly below the ceiling, the bird shook its head powerfully, the fire that rested atop its head blazing up and adding to the powerful image of the Legendary. Moltres flapped its flaming wings slowly, focusing on Gyarados with keen eyes, ready to take an order.

"Another Dragon rage!" Mark called, slightly nervously; what if it wouldn't work? Gyarados immediately released a blast of crimson fire from his mouth again, but with the grace of only a Legendary, the phoenix dived down, evading the attack with ease.

"Oh man," Mark murmured, gritting his teeth. "That thing can dodge."

"Glow," said the junior trainer. Mark scanned through his head, not remembering any attack called that, as he watched Moltres start to glow bright white. Suddenly something clunked into place, and Mark realized that this was the preparation for a Sky attack.

"Gyarados – Dragon rage!" he commanded desperately, hoping that the sea monster would be quick enough to get the hit in. Unfortunately, just as Gyarados started forming the dragon flames in his throat, Moltres' glowing swan shape shot towards the huge monster at amazing speed, its beak stabbing Gyarados right where two plates of his deep blue armor met; the exact place where he was vulnerable.

With a terrible roar, the sea monster screwed his eyes shut, flailing around in pain with the no longer glowing Moltres still stuck with its beak between two enormous plates of armor. Interestingly enough, Gyarados' size was such that he managed to splash enough water at the phoenix to almost put out its fire. A high-pitched screech was heard from the Legendary bird as it tried to flutter away while Gyarados retained his balance.

"And now, quickly, another Dragon rage!" Mark blurted out.

Being wet clearly slowed Moltres down considerably, since as the bird tried to fly out of the way, Gyarados managed to fire yet another blast of crimson flames, hitting this time. Moltres fell unconscious in mid-air and dropped limply to the ground.

"Wow," Mark muttered to himself as the junior trainer resentfully recalled his last Pokémon. "That's got to be the only time in history a battle was won on account of Splash."

The junior trainer took a small thing that looked like a car key out of his pocket, pressing a button on it. The Pokéball-shaped door on the other end of the arena slid open with a rumbling noise. The trainer pointed lousily over his shoulder with his thumb and then walked up to the bench again, sitting grumpily down with crossed arms. Mark nervously walked towards the door, but then stopped.

"Can I go back? I need to heal my Pokémon," he asked the trainer, feeling a sting of guilt for having almost forgotten how injured Charmander and Sandshrew were.

"You don't need to, there's a nurse just beyond the door," the junior trainer muttered, still sulking.

Mark walked through the round doorway; it immediately closed after him. As the junior trainer had said, a blond-haired woman in a white uniform waited just by the entrance, clutching a Pocket Healer in her hands.

"Good morning," she said politely with a small bow. "Would you like me to heal your Pokémon?"

"Er, yeah… thank you," Mark said, carefully handing her the Pokéballs. She gave a tiny nod, placing one ball at a time into the Pocket Healer and pressing the heal button.

"Done," she said, smiling, as she handed the balls back to Mark. He thanked her and then went on to the battle arena, which was identical to the previous one. This time around, however, the trainer wore red clothes with white linings on them, had bushy, purple hair, and was already standing in his square, grinning broadly with a scary glare of enthusiasm.

"Three on three," he said in a loud, clear voice with a British accent, holding one of those black and red Pokéballs. "Go, Raikou!"

The Pokéball released a huge tiger-like Pokémon, yellow in color. Its unnaturally long claws and fangs combined with the fact that its face was all hidden made it look scary; a black triangular plate covered the forehead and nose, four metallic-looking whiskers spread out from the front of its muzzle, and creamy white tufts of fur handled the sides of the head.

Mark had never been that much of a Raikou fan compared to the other Legendaries, but he found a certain grace in the way the tiger's muscles tightened under the black-striped skin and the absolute determination in its red eyes, the only visible parts of the face. Unsurely, he grabbed hold of Sandshrew's ball. Raikou was very well capable of using Crunch and other non-Electric attacks, and Sandshrew didn't know any Ground attacks.

But it wasn't like Charmander or Eevee would do much better, and letting Gyarados get beat at the first Pokémon that was sent out would be suicide. He made his decision.

"Sandshrew, go!" he shouted, throwing forward the Pokéball. As it bounced off the ground, it released the armadillo Pokémon in a flash of red. Sandshrew didn't appear to be a fan of Raikou either; his eyes opened very wide at the sight of the tiger and then he curled tightly up into a ball, which appeared to be his ideal solution to whatever problems he was facing.

"Raikou, Calm mind!" shouted the junior trainer. The tiger closed its eyes and bowed its head in deep concentration, revealing the then started glowing with a faint lavender aura. After a few seconds of waiting, Raikou raised its head again, its eyes open.

"This won't do, Sandshrew, Raikou will just use some stat boosters!" Mark said impatiently to the scaly sphere that was supposed to be his Pokémon, poking it with his toe. Sandshrew slowly uncurled, but this was the chance the junior trainer was waiting for; he quickly gave Raikou another order:

"Crunch, now!"

The tiger leapt at Sandshrew before he had the sense to curl up again, and with a roar, it locked its jaws around Sandshrew's body. The armadillo Pokémon's arms helplessly flailed around in mid-air; he gave a squeak when Raikou started squeezing its jaws together. A few drops of blood fell to the ground.

"No… Sandshrew, come back," Mark said limply, holding up the Pokéball so that Sandshrew was absorbed into it. Perhaps Pokémon battling wasn't the right sport for him…

"Go, er… Charmander."

Mark still didn't want to send out Eevee, although he wasn't sure why he was more ready to let Charmander get hurt.

The little lizard came out of the ball in a red beam of light, and clearly didn't like Raikou that much either.

"I'm supposed to battle that?" he whispered in disbelief, flicking his big eyes quickly back at Mark.

"Sorry, Charmander, we have to," Mark answered with a pained expression. "Just do your best."

Charmander nodded slowly and said in an odd voice: "Yes. I will."

Immediately after Charmander finished that sentence, the junior trainer gave Raikou a new command:

"Raikou, Spark!"

The thunder tiger started sparkling with electricity and jumped towards the much smaller Fire Pokémon. Charmander leapt to the side with surprising agility and then grabbed hold of Raikou's jagged, metallic tail. Snarling oddly in a way that wasn't very much like him, Charmander spat a bit of fire at the tail end. The reactions were immediate; a painful howl came from the Legendary's mouth at first as its body stiffened, then it started sprinting over the arena in an attempt to shake Charmander off. The lizard held on as well as he could, occasionally breathing flames on the tail end again in order to keep it hot. Mark could see that it was slowly melting.

Finally, Charmander fell off, bouncing once off the floor before landing on his side, seemingly unconscious. The junior trainer desperately tried to tell Raikou to stop running around in circles, but the Pokémon ignored it, putting higher priority on cooling down its tail than finishing the battle. For a few seconds, Mark was worried about Charmander as he didn't move, but then the small Pokémon stood up with difficulty, looking dizzy and breathing very hard. He started walking towards Mark.

"I… have a headache…" he said weakly, then dropped back on four legs, panting uncontrollably as sweat sprouted on his skin.

Slowly, the little Pokémon started emitting a bright white glow. Mark and the junior trainer both watched, stunned; even Raikou stopped running and turned its head sharply to watch.

"You weren't going to evolve until later, remember?" Mark said, remembering what they had discussed at the restaurant the previous day. On second thought, that was a stupid thing to say; obviously Charmander had to remember it, but he was in no state to resist the evolution.

Charmander's now pure white shape was steadily growing larger and bulkier. A small horn grew out of the back of the Pokémon's head. His muzzle lengthened. Then the growth came to a halt. For a second, the shape was just there emitting a bright aura; then the glow faded revealing a crimson red Charmeleon; bigger, more muscular and dragon-like, but otherwise somewhat similar to Charmander.

A more adult-shaped eye looked at Mark. A weak, deep "Char…" came from the evolved Pokémon, but then his legs collapsed under him and he lay limply on the ground, fainted.

Shaking, Mark held forward a Pokéball. "R-return," he stammered, his freshly-evolved friend disappearing into a beam of red energy.


	8. Charmeleon's Trainer

**Chapter 7: Charmeleon's Trainer**

Mark was stunned by Charmander's evolution itself, but no less the fact that even though they had decided to postpone the evolution to a better time, neither of them had been able to do anything to stop it. It also wouldn't stop bothering him what Charmander was like just before the evolution; he had looked so sickly, sweating like that, and had a headache. And how he acted when he battled Raikou – it wasn't normal. Not like him.

Nevertheless, as he reminded himself, he was still in a battle, and two out of the three Pokémon he could use for the battle had fainted, one of the possibilities left being really young, and the other one extremely vulnerable to the opponent's attacks. He tried to think, but felt he was absolutely unable to concentrate while still worrying about whether Charmeleon was still the same person as before or not.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them again.

"I forfeit."

"What?" the junior trainer questioned, apparently finding this absolutely unheard of.

"I give up," said Mark a bit louder. "I'm going to lose the battle anyway."

"You'll have to battle both of us again," the junior trainer pointed out.

"Can I just have a quick one-on-one with the guy before you or something?" Mark called back. The junior trainer, not really disliking the idea, shrugged and picked up a car key thing like the other junior trainer had possessed, pointing it at the door Mark came through so that it opened.

"Thanks," he said, before jerking around and running through the door.

The junior trainer in the first room noticed him and apparently had had cases of people rushing through his arena in the wrong direction before, because without words he picked up a key and opened the front door for Mark. He threw a yell of "thanks" over his shoulder before exiting. He was in such a hurry that he didn't notice the girl he crashed into in the doorway.

Both of them fell over, landing harshly on the ground.

"Ow," Mark groaned, standing heavily up. So did the girl. He was about to say sorry for running into her, but then recognized her as the blue-haired girl whose Skarmory had given Charmander a beating at the Lake of Purity.

She was still wearing the same clothes, but three other things were different about her. Firstly, her hair was done differently; now two locks fell down on either side of her face outside the ponytails, which also no longer stuck into the air like that, but rather just a little to the sides. Secondly, she had a necklace. Thirdly, her Pokéballs were missing.

Mark stared at her waist for a few seconds, seeing no trace of the battered Pokéball belt that used to be there. He saw her right eyebrow rise higher on her forehead, before she realized what he was staring at, or rather what he was not staring at. She gave a faint smile.

"My Pokéball belt was getting old, and in the mart this morning I saw these Pokéball necklaces and couldn't resist buying one," she explained, pointing at what Mark had taken for red orbs on the necklace when they were actually real, minimized Pokéballs. "It's more convenient against thieves, anyway," the girl added.

"New hairdo?" Mark asked. The girl blushed.

"Look, whatever first impression might be forming in your head, I swear, I don't usually change random things in my appearance like that. Normally people have a hard time convincing me to change my clothes." She sighed. "My name's May, by the way. Yours?"

"Mark," he said. Apologetically, he added: "Sorry for bumping into you like that."

"Nah, it's okay, I have plenty of time. How is your Charmander doing, anyway?"

"He… just evolved," said Mark faintly.

"Oh. I see." May looked at him for a second, then asked in a different tone: "How did you get him, anyway? You from Kanto?"

"No, Sailance," Mark answered.

"Sailance? Sorry, I'm not into Ouen place names – I'm from Johto, you see. Originally came here to get myself a low-leveled Skarmory, my favorite Pokémon."

Mark nodded; the next city to the south, Alumine, was famous for having the biggest Skarmory nesting ground in the world just outside it. Then his brain told him there was something wrong with this statement combined with what he already knew.

"Wait – did you get a Caterpie as your first Pokémon?"

May sighed deeply. "No," she said. "Professor Elm gave me a Cyndaquil. I actually picked her just because she was female, and females are so valuable – I seriously have no idea what I was thinking, because I hate Cyndaquil. She didn't exactly like me that much either. Then, while I was training just north of Cleanwater, I found this guy and battled him. He had a funny-looking Pikachu, and I used Cyndaquil against him. Basically, she was losing, but then suddenly she evolved in the middle of the battle and beat his weird Pikachu. Well, I like Quilava – don't ask me why I like Quilava but hate Cyndaquil – but as a person, I don't think she will ever like me. Then, completely unexpectedly, the boy wanted to trade his Charmander for my Quilava, said it was level 15. So I thought, yeah, why not? And I actually gave that stupid little git my Quilava," she spat the words 'stupid little git' very pronouncedly, "for a Charmander I had never seen that then turned out to be level five. And I got so angry (and stupid, mind you) that I actually tossed Charmander's ball away and went to try and find that boy, who had of course just gone away with my Quilava. That's actually the reason why I'm still here in Ouen, I'm trying to find that guy and get my Quilava back but I think I'm taking part in the league too since I'm here anyway. But I'm a bit worried about the Charmander, because either he's there somewhere in his Pokéball, or he got out of it and…" Her eyes darted around as if she was wondering how to word what she was going to say, but finally just finished it with three words: "Well, it rained."

She suddenly looked at Mark. "What's wrong? You're so pale."

"Wha… er, no, it's nothing," said Mark quickly. "Sorry."

May's right eyebrow ascended again, indicating that she didn't really believe him, but she said nothing. There was an awkward silence

"Well, I sorta need to challenge Rick, so… see you around," she finally said, turning back to the Gym. Mark's eyes flicked to the Pokémon center further down the street, and he nodded. "Yeah, I have to go too."

May shot a quick look at him. "Well, bye then, Mark."

"Bye," he replied. As May stepped into the gym, Mark broke into a run again, hurrying even more to the Pokémon Center.

Charmander belonged to May. There was no question about that; she had received him in a trade. But then again, she had thrown him away like a piece of garbage, just because he wasn't high-leveled enough for her almightiness, and she had agreed to a trade which opposed the Agreement – trades were never supposed to happen without consulting the Pokémon first.

Although she did seem to regret having thrown Charmander away.

_All the same,_ thought Mark, calming a bit down, _I'm his trainer now. Now that part of the Agreement protects me, not her._

He slowed down as he reached the automatic door to the Pokémon Center. It opened, and he walked hastily inside.

"Nurse Joy…" he panted, ringing the bell and experiencing a déjà vu flashback from last night. A few seconds passed, Mark's heart pounding against his chest; then the nurse came out of the back room.

"What can I do for you this time?" she asked warmly.

"It's… it's my Charmander… I mean Charmeleon…"

"What about him?" she questioned.

"He evolved, and he seems so different, he couldn't stop it because he was so weak when it happened, I'm worried, oh please…" Mark took a deep breath while Nurse Joy's face turned grave; he just handed her Charmeleon's Pokéball.

"Come with me," said Nurse Joy, taking the ball and gesturing for him to follow her into the blue back room.

"Before I start treating him, I'd like to talk to you," said the nurse, looking deep into his eyes. "No matter how different he might seem after the evolution, he's still the same Pokémon. Pokémon evolution is like growing up; when you're a kid you have certain ideas about the world, but when you become a teenager they might change a bit – or a lot. For Pokémon who just evolved, it's the exact same thing except that it happened all of a sudden rather than gradually as it would in a human's case. If he had enough respect for you as a Charmander, he will still be ready to battle for you no matter what happens. He could be very different, or he could be pretty much the same – but there will definitely be a change. Your Pokémon is no longer a child, and you need to realize that. Treat him with care, and don't give him a reason to dislike you. A reason for him to dislike you is not necessarily what would be a reason for you to dislike him; he's basically a moody teenager whose limits should not be pushed. Do you understand?"

Mark felt sick, but nodded.

"Good. This might take some time, so please wait in the waiting room."

Mark walked into the fluffy waiting room with a knot in his stomach. He wondered who had the stupid idea of making the waiting room pink and red; these colors were absolutely inappropriate and way too happy. The gloom of the back room would've been much better.

He was also not too fond of this Nurse Joy. Mark didn't want a moody teenager whose limits should not be pushed; he wanted his friend back. The last thing he'd ever care about would be whether he would still obey.

He flung himself into one of the sofas and for half an hour or so, he sat there with a blank expression, staring at an ad for Kantonian Airways. A red-haired boy who seemed to fit very well with all the fluffy pinkness decided to try to be funny by waving his hand in front of Mark's face. He hated himself for smiling at it; it wasn't funny at all.

Finally, Nurse Joy came out of the back room, holding Charmeleon's Pokéball. Mark immediately sprang up, running towards the desk.

"He seems fine physically," said the red-headed nurse. "You judge the mental part."

With a small bow, she handed Mark the Pokéball. He accepted it and walked out of the Pokémon Center.

He stopped beside the building, hesitated, but then dropped the Pokéball to the ground. Charmeleon materialized from red energy as Mark caught the ball again.

For a few seconds, they just looked into each other's eyes. Mark had never noticed how awkwardly small Charmeleon had been as a Charmander; even now, evolved, he was smaller than an average Charmeleon.

"Hi," said Charmeleon finally in a low voice. Mark suddenly felt a lot better.

"Hi." Mark paused, leaning against the wall and staring into the air. "Sorry we didn't get to postpone your evolution as we intended."

"It's okay," said Charmeleon, leaning up to the wall too and likewise not looking at Mark. "It felt quite amazing, actually."

"What was it like?" Mark asked, this being one of the things he had often wondered about although his voice wasn't up to showing interest of any kind at the moment.

"Everything just disappeared in a bright white light, first I thought I was dying… then I felt the power that was always hidden somewhere in my body burst out, I felt like… like I was melting. I had a kind of a vision of a Charmeleon walking towards me, pulling me away and taking my place… a twinge of pain at this point for some reason, I think... but immediately afterwards, I felt so much wiser and older. Then the white light faded, I saw you, but I was very weak after the evolution and lost consciousness…"

He hesitated.

"You know, it's weird – when I think back at my Charmanderhood, it feels so… childish."

Suddenly he looked straight at Mark, meeting his eyes.

"It's strange… why did I just want you to train me back there? Why wasn't I suspicious of you for a single moment? Not that I am now," he added quickly, "but… I mean, what if you had been a bad trainer and abused me or something? It was a stupid thing to do, just accepting you as my trainer immediately because you told me you saved my life. Don't take me wrong, I mean… of course you are trustworthy, but what did I know then? You could've been somebody… bad."

Mark had no answer to that. Charmeleon didn't appear to be expecting one, either; it was more like he was thinking out loud.

"Well, I was lucky. Really lucky." Charmeleon smiled faintly at Mark and then turned away again.

"Do you feel like doing some more junior trainer wiping?"

They grinned at each other; both knew the answer.

"Come on," Mark said, holding Charmeleon's Pokéball forward. The red beam shot out of it, dissolving the Pokémon.

Mark hesitated for a moment. He had been in a rather hopeless situation earlier, mainly because his Pokémon's attacks were kind of weak compared to the ones the Legendaries knew. The only one with a halfway decent attack was Gyarados.

He remembered when he had seen the TMs and HMs at the Pokémart. He thought for a bit. Flamethrower was a TM. Earthquake was a TM. Return was a TM.

One good TM for each of his Pokémon except Gyarados would probably give him the edge.

Mark walked decisively towards the market. He went back to the shelf he remembered as containing the Technical and Hidden Machines. Ten years ago, Hidden Machines were really rare items. Now, you could buy them at Pokémon markets for around the same price as a TM – admittedly one-use only versions.

He browsed through the selection of CD covers. Each of them had a photo of a Pokémon performing the attack it contained, the TM or HM number, and the attack's name. He found TM35 for Flamethrower, TM26 for Earthquake and TM27 for Return; they were more expensive than the Potions and Pokéballs, but still relatively cheap. He made carefully sure to himself that these attacks would definitely work well; then he went to the counter to pay the punk dude.

After he got outside again, he let Charmeleon out.

"Charmeleon," he said in a formal tone, "are you willing to accept this Flamethrower as your first Technical Machine move?"

The Pokémon grinned. "I do," he then said seriously.

"Good," said Mark. He opened the CD cover carefully; even though he thought he knew how to use a TM, he checked the instructions with the disc carefully just to make sure. He then took it, and touched Charmeleon's head gently with it.

The CD's vibrant red slowly drained away from it, leaving it dull gray and useless and enveloping the Pokémon with a fiery glow. Charmeleon closed his eyes; the glow slowly sank into his skin.

It was done.

"Do you feel any wiser?" Mark questioned, not sure how exactly it was supposed to work.

"Sure do," said the Pokémon with a smile.

"Great. You can go back into your ball, then."

Mark held forward the Pokéball; Charmeleon was drained into it as a beam of red light from the button hit him. He took out the second ball.

"Sandshrew, go!"

Mark's Ground Pokémon appeared, curling into a scaly ball before even seeing whether he was in battle or not. Mark laughed.

"Oh, come on, you aren't going to get hurt, I'm just going to teach you a TM."

Sandshrew uncurled in an instant, looking unsurely up at his trainer. Mark felt a twinge of guilt; Sandshrew didn't trust him. Of course he didn't. Mark wouldn't trust somebody who kept letting him get injured, either.

"I'm… sorry about it all, you know," he said in a low voice. "I didn't mean to get you hurt so much."

"Shrew," the Pokémon said unhappily.

"Well… would you forgive me if I made sure you never lost a battle again?"

Sandshrew didn't answer.

"At least, I've got a TM for you. You know what that is, right?"

The armadillo Pokémon nodded faintly.

"Yeah, and it's Earthquake. That's a very, very powerful attack. You're going to do great with it."

Sandshrew had apparently heard of this devastating attack sometime among the Sandshrew he grew up with; he just nodded, quite a bit more confidently than he had ever looked before.

"So…" Mark took out the second CD cover, opened it and picked up the disc, "stand still and concentrate."

Sandshrew closed his eyes; Mark touched him with the CD, orangeish brown this time, and like before, the color faded from the disc and instead started circling Sandshrew in the form of energy. It then seeped through his hide. The armadillo shook himself powerfully, then looked back up at Mark with his beady black eyes, perhaps a bit less hopelessly than before.

"We'll beat those junior trainers now, right?" Mark said meaningfully.

"Sand," said the Pokémon, nodding.

"Good," said Mark, smiling, as he recalled the armadillo Pokémon.

Next off, it was Eevee. Mark took a deep breath.

"Go." The small brown furball emerged, looking curiously around and eying Mark intensely.

"Eevee, you don't know what a TM is, do you?"

Eevee shook his head.

"Well…" Mark found it so awkward to be explaining so many things to Eevee; why did he have to go through all this but not anybody else?

"See," he finally began, "Pokémon know moves. You know that, right?"

The Pokémon nodded.

"Yeah… and TMs… or Technical Machines… can be used to teach a Pokémon a move that it couldn't learn otherwise."

"Vi?" the small Pokémon questioned.

"Well, see – I take this disc," he removed the Return TM from the cover, "and when I touch you with it, your cells will react to it and then a complicated process starts, and basically, after it you'll be able to focus your power in a – er – new way."

Eevee nodded nervously.

"OK, then…" Mark took the disc and lightly made it touch Eevee's head. The Pokémon let out a small sound, but didn't move. His eyes closed; white orbs of energy drained from the disc and started circling Eevee slowly. They went faster and faster, and finally faded into Eevee's fur. He shivered, opened his eyes and moaned a little.

"Are you okay?" asked Mark concernedly. Eevee nodded a bit, shook himself vigorously and appeared to feel better afterwards.

"Now, uh… do you trust me?"

Eevee nodded.

"Then focus on it very carefully," Mark said, not sure how to explain the attack. Eevee screwed his eyes carefully shut, concentrating.

Slowly, a pinkish aura started emitting from Eevee. He let out a soft squeal of curiosity, probably feeling energy building up in his body.

"Great!" Mark cheered. "This attack is called Return. You basically do that, and then tackle the opponent. Okay?"

Eevee nodded nervously, the pink glow fading.

"Ready to go to the Gym?" Mark asked carefully.

"Vee," said Eevee decisively, nodding.

Mark was still not sure whether it would be right to use Eevee in battle.


	9. The Master of the Clones

**Chapter 8: The Master of the Clones**

"Do you mind if we just have a one-on-one?"

Mark pronounced this question nervously to the junior trainer wearing all the neon green. He was still clearly in a very bad mood, but nodded curtly.

"Go, Arcanine."

A huge creature burst out of the Pokéball. Its overall shape was rather dog-like, but the gleaming orange fur with jet-black stripes looked more like a tiger. It shook back its cream-colored mane, letting out an ear-splitting roar as it swished a bushy tail. Its huge black claws dug into the floor as it snarled towards Mark.

"Uh… is Arcanine a Legendary?" Mark asked, confused.

"It isn't, but it was considered one in ancient times," said the junior trainer simply. "Let's just get this over with."

Mark hesitated, but then took out Gyarados's ball. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"Go!" he yelled. The sea monster formed into the pool, letting out an even louder roar. Even the Arcanine appeared to flinch for a second, but then it started growling again.

"Dragon Rage," Mark just said.

Gyarados threw his head forward, blasting out dark flames. The Arcanine leapt skillfully out of the way and countered by leaning down low for a second and then leaping at Gyarados at incredible, unavoidable speed. The sea serpent roared in pain, darting forward and grabbing Arcanine's tail in his mouth. The giant canine froze for a second; then it swung around and fired a great jet of fire from its mouth into Gyarados's face. He retaliated with another blast of dragon flames, which enveloped the Arcanine. The great dog howled in pain, turned to Gyarados again and attempted to release another cloud of flames, failing. Then with a final yelp, it lost its balance and its whole majestic shape dropped down to the floor, defeated.

"Arcanine, return," said the trainer, the dog Pokémon dissolving into red energy and being sucked into the Pokéball. "Go on."

Mark nodded, walking across the arena to the nurse, and after getting his Pokémon healed, through the door to the purple-haired trainer.

"You back?" he asked enthusiastically. "Great! Go, Raikou!"

Mark grinned. "Go, Sandshrew!"

The armadillo Pokémon didn't curl up upon entering the battle this time. His eyes fixed on Raikou, he awaited the order he knew he would get…

"Earthquake!"

The junior trainer's eyes widened in surprise as Sandshrew rose to his hind legs. Slamming back into the ground, the small Pokémon made the floor ripple like liquid. The attack was unavoidable; Raikou jumped over one wave but landed just as the next one struck. As the floor rippled under the Legendary's paws, it shivered and released some electric sparks.

Sandshrew rose up for the second time, preparing to perform the attack again, but the junior trainer quickly countered:

"Raikou, Crunch!"

Immediately, the tiger leapt forward, grabbing Sandshrew in its mouth like the other time and starting to squeeze.

"Scratch!" Mark ordered desperately. The small Pokémon dug its claws into Raikou's jaw, and the tiger released him with a painful roar. Sandshrew looked rather weak and battered as he stood on his hind legs again, preparing for a final Earthquake. Smashing his paws into the ground, the floor rippled and Raikou, with a weak "Raiii", lost its balance and collapsed.

"Shrew," said the armadillo wearily, yet with a tint of pride. He had worked hard enough for now; Mark recalled him.

"Go, Entei!" yelled the trainer, hurling forward the black and red ball. A reddish-brown, bulky, lion-like Pokémon burst out of the Pokéball with a deep, loud roar. A star shape surrounded its face, yellow at the top, white at the bottom and red at the sides. A grayish-white cloak that reminded Mark of a cloud or smoke kept changing its form on the Pokémon's back. It was Mark's favorite out of the Legendary Beasts of Johto.

He observed Entei while he thought about which Pokémon to choose. Entei's eyes looked back at him, painfully robotically. Mark bit his lip; he was growing to despise that Rick person before even seeing him, just for doing that to Legendary Pokémon. Even if they were clones, it was wrong...

"Go, Gyarados!" he said, throwing the ball that held the sea monster. Gyarados formed with his usual opening roar. Entei started roaring back at him. For a few seconds the battle was a roaring contest between the two Pokémon; then Entei's trainer shouted: "Sunny Day!"

The lion lifted its head towards the dome roof and closed its eyes in deep concentration. The sun appeared to get clearer and hotter.

"Dragon Rage!" Mark commanded. The trainer gasped; Gyarados formed crimson flames deep in his throat and fired them at the lion. Entei leapt to the side, dodging the attack easily.

"Entei, Flamethrower!" roared the junior trainer. The Legendary inhaled deeply and sent a cloud of flames towards the sea monster. Gyarados quickly countered with another Dragon Rage. Mark knew dragon flames were stronger than normal flames, but seeing as Entei was a Fire Pokémon, he wasn't sure Gyarados would claim victory now.

He watched worriedly. The blasts still just met in the middle where the flames mixed and formed a huge orb of fire. The two Pokémon did their best to keep up the attack, and neither appeared to be stronger than the other.

But Gyarados was much higher-leveled than his opponent, and after a few seconds, Entei had to breathe. This gave Gyarados the chance to engulf the lion in dragon flames. Another deep roar like the one Entei had started the battle with sounded; when the fire cleared, Entei lay on the ground, defeated.

"Return," said the junior trainer disappointedly. "Go, Suicune!"

Mark held his breath as the Legendary he had seen the night before at the Lake of Purity appeared out of the ball. The slender blue body was the exact same, as was the unique crystal on its head and the white, rippling ribbons. But the expression was not. Even though he had only seen Suicune at a distance, he was positive that the eyes hadn't been so robotically blank.

Gyarados's eyes were however very filled with emotion. He stared at the Legendary with a mix of despise and anger.

"Why?" he growled. Suicune, of course, was a brainwashed clone and therefore showed no reactions except assuming a fighting stance. The purple-haired trainer stared at Gyarados, puzzled.

"It… it can talk?" he asked, for the first time getting distracted from the battle. Gyarados paid no attention to this comment; he just closed his eyes hatefully in concentration.

What happened now was amazing. The dark blue of Gyarados' armor faded into gray. When he had turned completely grayscale, he suddenly opened his eyes with an ear-splitting roar, and two narrow, bright red beams of energy shot from his eyeballs at Suicune. The Legendary staggered backwards, looking to be in serious pain, started to sweat uncontrollably and finally fell unconscious to the floor with a weak "Cune…"

The junior trainer's jaw dropped.

"What the heck was that?" he breathed in disbelief.

"I… I don't know," said Mark, just as stunned. Gyarados turned his back at the Legendary and Mark sensed he wasn't wishing to talk about reasons for anything.

"Well… looks like you won," said the trainer, staring at the fallen Beast. A pool of water was forming around the place where Suicune lay.

The trainer took out one of those keys and opened the door as Mark recalled Gyarados.

"Go on."

Mark nodded and went through the door as the trainer recalled Suicune. The nurse healed Mark's Pokémon in the Pocket healer.

The next arena looked identical to the other two, but the trainer there was a little boy wearing a very awkward, formal-looking suit. He ran his fingers slowly through his blond hair.

"Hi," he greeted dryly. "You here for a battle? I'm warning you – it won't be easy. Two on two."

The boy took a minimized Pokéball from inside his suit, maximized it and threw it forward.

"Go, Ho-oh!"

What came out of the Pokéball was absolutely huge. It was a gigantic, crimson bird, almost three times as tall as the boy. It stood on big, pitch-black talons and had peculiar, mask-like markings around its eyes. The Pokémon opened its crooked beak and let out a majestic, fierce cry. Then suddenly, it pointed its head upwards, the golden, crown-like crest on its head swaying back, and stretched out its broad, colorful wings, taking off into the air.

Mark considered his options, knowing that he was doing exceptionally well against this Gym just because he knew so much about the Legendaries. Ho-oh was a Fire Pokémon, but capable of using very varied attacks. It would be a risk, but Mark plucked Gyarados' ball off the Pokéball belt.

"GO!" he shouted. The sea monster emerged into the pool with his usual opening roar.

"Dragon Rage!" Mark ordered quickly, not wanting to risk an Electric attack making contact with Gyarados.

"Sunny Day," said the boy calmly. Ho-oh closed its eyes and took a fiery glow as the sunlight shining through the dome intensified greatly. Mark shielded his eyes from the light with his hand. Gyarados breathed out a blast of crimson flames at the rainbow-colored bird and Ho-oh screeched in pain.

"And now, Solarbeam!" commanded the boy. Ho-oh obeyed, forming an orb of sunlight in its beak and firing a white-hot beam of light at Gyarados. He roared as the beam struck him, leaving a burn mark on one of the segments of his body. He countered with another Dragon Rage, which turned out to be too much even for the Legendary; Ho-oh let out a weak cry and then landed exhaustedly on the floor.

"Return," said the trainer disappointedly. "Lugia, do it!"

Mark felt his stomach twitch upon hearing the name of his favorite Pokémon of all; he felt both excited to see it and very pained to know that he'd just see a clone. The red and black Pokéball opened in mid-air, releasing the Pokémon it held.

If Ho-oh was huge, Mark didn't know what Lugia was. The bright white draconic creature stood on powerful legs, stretching its somewhat hand-like, feathered wings out to a wingspan of what looked like almost six meters. Combined with the long neck, the Pokémon itself was probably over five meters tall. Growing back from the eyes were the two black spikes that Mark had always loved the most about this Legendary.

"Gyarados, Dragon Rage!" Mark ordered quickly. Gyarados wouldn't last long, especially not after having been hit with that Solarbeam previously, but at least he'd be able to dish out some damage with the most powerful attack in his whole team.

"Lugia, Psychic!"

Lugia started glowing with a bright blue aura as Gyarados charged dragon flames in his mouth. The sea monster unleashed the attack a moment before the Legendary; Lugia got hit hard by the flames, but then fired a blue blast of psychic energy at Gyarados. He roared in pain and collapsed weakly.

"Return," Mark muttered. He considered his possibilities. Despite what some people thought, Lugia was a Psychic Pokémon rather than a Water or Dragon one, so Charmeleon wouldn't be at a disadvantage. With it this sunny, the lizard should win.

Mark made his decision and grabbed the Pokéball with his hand.

"Go, Charmeleon!"

Mark's evolved Pokémon came out. He appeared to flinch slightly at the sight of Lugia's size, but quickly came back to his senses.

"Flamethrower!" Mark blurted out.

"Hyper Beam!" the trainer said, gritting his teeth.

Lugia started charging a white orb of energy in its mouth.

"No, wait, Charmeleon…"

Lugia threw its head backwards before firing the beam.

"DODGE!"

Charmeleon jumped swiftly out of the way, just before a bright white beam smashed into the floor just where he had been. Some of the floor seemed to melt.

"Flamethrower, now!" Mark ordered. Lugia was worn-out after using all of its energy in a Hyper Beam and couldn't counter when Charmeleon breathed a tongue of flames towards it. With a loud cry of pain, Lugia collapsed.

"NO!" shouted the boy. He recalled Lugia disdainfully.

"Go on, then," he muttered, opening the door. Mark went through it and healed his Pokémon nervously. The previous match had been a close call.

This arena was also identical to the previous ones. The trainer wore a lab coat and glasses and had long, black hair.

"You're going down," he said confidently. "One on one. Go, Mewtwo²!"

"Mew… what?" Mark questioned. The Pokéball opened to reveal a strange Pokémon.

It was a light purplish blue all over. Its head was somewhat catlike with two horns pointing straight upwards in place of ears, but the overall shape was slightly humanoid. The whole body was so unnaturally thin, though, that Mark wondered if it had ever eaten a single morsel. He could count the ribs under the furred skin, and the long arms and legs had three bony fingers or toes each. Its eyes were small, white and had no pupils. Finally, absolutely contrasting with the weakish appearance of its body, it had a very long, muscular, dark blue tail ending in a round shape.

It suddenly dawned on to Mark what it was. It was Rick's experimental super-clone, but he had in fact 'cheated' – he made a super-clone of a super-clone. Super-clone².

"Go, Gyarados," Mark said nervously, sensing that this would be a difficult battle. The blue sea monster emerged from the Pokéball into the pool. Gyarados let out his battle roar.

"_What is my task?_" said Mewtwo²'s voice weakly inside Mark's head. He couldn't help feeling horribly sorry for it.

"Fight," the scientist ordered. He didn't need to say anything else. Mewtwo² started glowing bright blue as the same glow took over Gyarados' shape.

"Gyarados, Dragon Rage!" Mark commanded desperately, but Gyarados couldn't do anything that wasn't Mewtwo²'s will now. Slowly, he rose up into the air, drawing closer to the ceiling.

"_No,_" said the weak telepathic voice as Mewtwo²'s glow started fading and Gyarados got lowered back towards the pool. "_I… don't… want…_" Mark saw the clone's body starting to sweat, like it was making a great effort.

"Fight," the scientist growled again. It was like Mewtwo² was zapped with electricity or something; its body went stiff for a second, but then it started glowing blue again. At that very moment, Gyarados unleashed a blast of crimson fire which enveloped Mewtwo². A telepathic scream of pain could be heard; then the clone was left dazed and dropped down, fainted. Mark felt a twinge of guilt.

"Return," muttered the scientist. "Face Rick, kid," he then said, reaching into his pocket and taking out the key to the Pokéball door. It opened slowly.

Mark went through the door and got his Pokémon healed, noticing that this arena was about double the size of the previous four. But the Gym Leader was nowhere to be seen.

"Rick went to the basement," the nurse explained. "You'll just wait here, won't you? I need to go now."

Mark nodded, and the nurse hurried out through a side door.

Mark sat down on a bench. The basement? Where was the basement? What was Rick doing there?

He stood up, walking backwards from the wall and looking if he saw a door somewhere. His foot slipped and he was sent flying into the pool.

Mark's first thought was that he'd have to change his clothes. The second thought was that this pool was stupidly deep. The third was "What's that hole in the wall doing there?" The fourth was that he'd better get out of the pool.

He swam to the bank and climbed up. He looked around, and seeing no signs of Rick, he sent Gyarados out into the pool.

The sea monster looked around, seeing no opponent, and turned back to Mark.

"Could you swim down there and see what this hole in the wall is for?" Mark asked. Gyarados just nodded and dived down. Mark saw him disappear through the hole. After a few minutes, during which Mark wondered why he was being so nosy, the monster returned.

"It's very interesting, actually," Gyarados stated. "It's a pretty long tunnel, but it ends where you go a bit up, and it's got steps up, like you can empty the pool and then walk the whole way. There's a red room there, I couldn't go in so I didn't see much."

"A red room?" Mark questioned blankly. "Emptying the pool?"

"Yeah, you can probably empty it somehow. Try the light switches over there." Gyarados jerked his head towards the wall, which had six switches on it in two columns of three.

Mark walked over there, not sure why he was doing this but driven on by curiosity.

The switches weren't marked. He pressed the first one and the lights went out. He quickly pressed it again, but nothing happened. He tried it again a few times, but then tried the second switch. The boxes the trainers were supposed to stand in got illuminated. Nothing happened when he pressed it again, either. He tried the third one and Gyarados got lit up too. He growled, screwing his eyes shut.

"I don't like this light, Mark," he said.

"Sorry, I can't turn anything off here," Mark apologized, attempting to press this button again. The fourth switch, to Mark's great relief, put the lights back to normal. Pressing the fifth one, he wasn't really expecting anything interesting to happen, but with a great noise, a drain opened at the bottom of the pool and the water level started lowering.

"You'd better recall me before it empties," Gyarados commented. Mark nodded, holding forward the Pokéball as it dissolved Gyarados into red energy. The pool took a bit of time to empty, but it was way too deep for Mark to get to the bottom.

He hopelessly tried the sixth switch, and small handles appeared out of the wall of the pool, forming a ladder.

Mark shrugged and went down, wondering what Rick would do if he came back. He nervously entered the tunnel and walked through it. It was rather long, but in the end he came to another, short staircase. He climbed up, ending in, as Gyarados had said, a room lit by red lights. A see-through door led to another red room; it was open.

He curiously went in, but then heard voices. He quickly ducked behind a low wall. Through the red glass on top of it, he watched two scientists walk into the room, which he now had the time to examine.

It was full of glass tanks containing a brown liquid. Inside them floated Pokémon embryos, some very Pokémon-like, others just creepy, shapeless forms at the early stages. Each tank had a screen and a keyboard on it. Odd, pyramid-shaped devices of different sizes were lined along the walls. Mark realized he was in Rick's cloning lab.

One of the scientists walked to a tank containing what looked somewhat like a Caterpie. The other one walked to one that was farther away so Mark didn't see what was in it.

"Hey, Peter," the nearer one called, "I think it's ready."

The Peter guy came and peered at the Caterpie.

"Yeah, looks pretty good," he agreed. "I've got to tend to mine, though." He walked back to his tank, and the one with the Caterpie did something on the computer and then the brown liquid started flowing out. The Caterpie was left in the tank and slowly opened an eye.

"Cater…" it squeaked. "Cater… two!" Mark suddenly understood what was going on – they were making more super-clones, ones that Rick didn't have a license for. He hardly dared to breathe.

The scientist pressed a button and the tank opened with a low hiss. He picked up the Catertwo, smiling.

"What a beauty!" he said proudly. Peter came holding a Pikachu super-clone – it had blue balls on its ears, blue pawpads, long blue claws and a threadlike, jagged tail with a blue triangle at the end. It looked menacingly at Catertwo and hissed, baring its sharp fangs.

"Mine's pretty good too," Peter said. The other one examined the Pikatwo.

"Well, nothing beats Rick's. You know, the one he gave to Taylor," he commented.

"Ah, well, that doesn't count," said Peter. "Rick's the cloning master."

"Yeah, but seriously…" said the other one, lowering his voice, "I've got to say, Rick's spoiling the kid. If _my_ little brother came to me and said the Charmander he got as a starter was too weak and he wanted a clone, I'd tell him to shut up and clone one himself. But nooo, of course Rick just gives him the best clone we've ever made, and I heard he's going to give him even more! And then Taylor lost his Charmander and got some level 14 Quilava out of nowhere, just to keep it in the Pokéball all day without training it at all! And I mean, what's Rick thinking, giving him super-clones? Anybody at all can see them! This is madness, somebody will catch him one day if he keeps this up..."

The scientist stopped abruptly upon seeing a blond-haired, handsome man of around twenty-five enter from a side room, who Mark assumed was Rick.

"Hey, Peter, Jimmy, do you know who was playing around with the switches?" he asked worriedly.

"Well, nobody entered, at least," said Jimmy. "We'd have noticed."

"That's good. Let's just hope it was some random kid." Rick smiled faintly, but walked back to the room. In the doorway, he turned around again.

"Oh… Lee says Mewtwo² is resisting the Clone Ball again. We've got to make a new model of the ball."

The two scientists nodded.

"Let's go evolve these beauties, now," said Peter happily and they walked over to the pyramid-shaped machines near the walls. Mark saw his chance; he quickly glanced at the door he came through, but the entrance room was filling with water again; Mark assumed that Rick was refilling the pool. He looked around the room and eyed a staircase leading further down. Not seeing any other possible exit, he crawled silently towards it.

It led to a long corridor containing nothing but posters on the walls with ideas of new super-clones. Mark took a quick look at each of them, but didn't have the time to read any properly. At the end of the corridor there was a ladder; Mark climbed up and hit his head on something hard. He discovered it was a trapdoor. Lifting it carefully up and climbing through, he discovered he was in the seemingly empty entrance room to the Gym itself.

He shivered, remembering that his clothes were still wet, and rushed to the hotel, thinking about this experience.


	10. Mew's Escape

**Chapter 9: Mew's Escape**

The old woman by the counter looked dully up as Mark walked past, but showed a great deal more interest upon noticing that his clothes were dripping with water.

"Why are you so wet?" she asked suspiciously.

"Fell in a pool," Mark muttered absent-mindedly without looking at her. She didn't get anything else out of him before he disappeared up the stairs.

Mark felt like he had an overdose of mysteries for one day as he took his wet clothes off. May rightfully owned Charmeleon. Should he talk to Charmeleon about it, or just forget it and hope she would never find out? And to think that the guy who had originally received Charmander was the brother of Cleanwater City's Gym leader! And Rick was making more super-clones… he was abusing Mewtwo²… and Gyarados clearly had some serious issues with Suicune and used some weird mega attack of doom! This was so complicated!

Mark took on his blue jeans and white Pokéball T-shirt, sat down on the bed and sighed.

_Why me? I just wanted a Pokémon journey, not a headache like this!_

After sitting there and staring into the air for a couple of minutes, he stood up. He was just going to get that badge, and then he could think about the other stuff. Better get the Gym over with.

And punish Rick in a battle for doing this to the Legendary Pokémon.

Mark felt oddly confident now that he felt like he had to do this. He walked determinedly out towards the Gym.

_Rick shall pay._

The first junior trainer didn't seem to be there when Mark came. A note on the door told challengers to go right through, with the key taped to the note. Mark pressed the button and it slid out of the way. The other three junior trainers weren't there either. He went straight through all of their arenas.

The young, blond-haired man from the lab was there, however. And so was May. He was hatefully handing her a coin-like object.

"Hi," she said as she walked past Mark on the way out. He quickly whispered: "Wait for me at the Pokémon Center, I seriously need to have a word with you. It's about your Quilava."

She looked puzzled, but nodded and walked outside.

"Hello," Rick said dryly. "Another challenger?"

Mark nodded, turning to the Gym Leader.

"How many Pokémon do you have?" Rick asked.

"Four," said Mark.

"Four on four it is, then," said Rick. "I choose…"

He reached down to his Pokéball belt, with six Clone Balls attached to it, took one and maximized it. He grinned.

"…Articuno." Rick threw the ball powerfully forward. It popped open in mid-air, releasing a second Articuno clone. This one seemed all the more aggressive; it glared at Mark with ruby red eyes, scratching the air with its talons as if to show its power.

"Go, Charmeleon!"

The red lizard emerged from bright red light.

"Flamethrower," Mark ordered.

"Ice Beam!" Rick countered quickly. Charmeleon's blast of fire met with an elegant beam of ice crystals from the sky blue bird. Where they met, water started showering down into the pool.

"Come on, Charmeleon," Mark muttered, clenching his fist. The lizard looked back at him and then suddenly, without warning, stopped breathing flames and leapt out of the way. Articuno's Ice Beam smashed into the ground as Charmeleon fired another Flamethrower from directly below the bird. The flames enveloped the Legendary and Articuno fell, its wings on fire, into the pool, where the flames went out. Rick recalled the Pokémon, his face expressionless. He replaced the Clone Ball on his belt.

"The battle isn't over yet," he said coldly.

Rick paused for a second, but finally took another ball off his Pokéball belt.

"Ho-oh, show him not to mess with Legendaries," he growled.

Rick sent out a Ho-oh, even larger than the one the junior trainer had. It flapped its multicolored wings and took off.

"Earthquake." Rick's voice was icy; he clearly did not like losing the first round.

"Charmeleon, return!" Mark shouted, knowing it was the wisest thing to do. "Gyarados, go!"

Ho-oh slammed into the ground just as Gyarados materialized in the pool, but being in the water, the sea monster was not affected.

"Dragon Rage!" Mark roared. Gyarados released a blast of dragon flames at the giant bird. It screeched, trying to retain its balance. The blue dragon blasted more crimson fire at the Legendary, and it gave up with a final cry, landing gracefully on the floor and spreading out its wings before collapsing.

Rick gritted his teeth, recalling Ho-oh.

"Raikou, show him!" he snarled, tossing the third Clone Ball into the arena. "Bring that thing down with a Thunderbolt!"

The tiger-like Pokémon leapt out of the Pokéball in mid-air, roaring. Electricity crackled in its fur, and before Mark had the sense to do anything, a blast of lightning was fired at Gyarados. He roared in pain and then fell down motionless. Mark seemed to remember reading that Gyarados were extremely vulnerable to electricity as he recalled the sea monster.

Mark nervously took out Sandshrew's ball.

"Go! Earthquake!" he said quickly as he threw the Pokéball. Sandshrew posed in mid-air and came down hard on the ground, causing the floor to ripple. Earthquake was an amazingly complicated attack; a human who got caught in the waves of the ground would merely feel a small tickle, but for the Legendary Beast of Thunder on the other side of the arena, it was in fact very devastating, disrupting the delicate balance between the positively and negatively charged ions in the Electric Pokémon's body. Raikou growled, trembling a bit.

"Another Earthquake!" Mark commanded. Sandshrew rose to his hind legs, preparing to perform the attack again.

"Quick attack!" Rick hissed. Raikou leant back and then leapt forward at undetectable speed, striking Sandshrew hard. He lost his balance, and the tiger then attempted to sink its fangs into the little Pokémon's body, but Sandshrew acted quickly on his own accord, and stung the Legendary's paw with one of his claws, injecting poison through it into the tiger's blood. It howled in pain, staggering backwards, and then Sandshrew had the chance to unleash a second Earthquake attack. Raikou weakly let out some small sparks and then fainted.

Rick swore loudly, recalling the tiger.

"Very well… go, Mew!"

Out of the ball came a light pink, furred little creature. The hind legs were much longer than the tiny front paws; its long, threadlike tail ended in an oval shape. Big, stubby ears rested on a catlike head with two big, sapphire blue eyes.

The previous Legendary clones had had absolutely emotionless eyes, like robots made to do what they were told, save for Mewtwo². But Mew was different. The eyes seemed somehow faded, half-closed, and above all horribly sad. The Pokémon looked limp.

"Surf," Rick hissed. Mew's weary eyes glowed deep blue and the water in the pool started rising in a great wave which crashed upon Sandshrew with terrible force, but flowed neatly past Mark on both sides. Slowly the water drained back into the pool, and Sandshrew was left soaked and shivering.

"Shrew…" he said weakly before losing consciousness.

Mark hesitated. His determination from before was fading, and he only had Eevee left.

_Oh, come on, maybe I'm being overprotective,_ he thought. _Jeesh, I'm turning into mom…_

"Go, Eevee!" he yelled, throwing the ball. The little brown creature materialized and looked at Mew with his big brown eyes.

"Eevee, Return," Mark said anxiously. Eevee looked at Mew for a second, but then turned back to Mark.

"Ee… vee," he said. It took a bit of time for Mark to realize that this was the first clearly understandable thing that Eevee said. He was saying that he didn't want to attack Mew because it was so sad.

"Oh, Eevee, please, there's nothing we can do about that!" Mark said desperately. Eevee just shook his head.

"Vee?" he said, stepping a bit forward towards the Legendary.

"Thunderbolt!" Rick spat. Mew didn't react to it at all, and was instead watching Eevee.

"Darn it, Psychic! Something! Attack, you stupid thing!"

"Mew…" said the Pokémon weakly. Eevee tilted his head curiously and walked farther up to the pink creature. He carefully laid a paw on its shoulder.

"Eevee?" he asked. Slowly, he started glowing with a pink aura – the positive energy that Return was made of. Suddenly, Mew's eyes opened wide. Then it dropped down, unconscious.

Eevee jumped away with a shriek, clearly very confused about what had happened. He carefully poked the pink Pokémon's body; it didn't move.

Rick turned very pale. He slowly took out the Clone Ball, recalled the Mew into it and started muttering to the ball.

"You… there's a curse on you… I've lost every single battle I've used you in… this is all one of your devilish little tricks… you're going to bring me down…"

Suddenly, Rick turned to Mark.

"Catch," he said, throwing the ball at him. Mark caught it.

"Huh?" he asked, confused, staring at the orb in his hands.

"Take it away! The devil, just take it!"

"What the…"

"Don't you want it?" Rick asked in a tempting voice. Mark looked open-mouthed at the ball. He was almost going to say no, he couldn't accept something like this, but then he remembered the sad expression on Mew throughout the battle. He couldn't leave it here.

"…Yes."

Rick's eyes glinted.

"Good boy. Your badge."

He walked firmly up to Mark and dropped a small silver coin into his hand. Mark examined it. It had an eye engraved in the middle, but it was surrounded by a raindrop, a bolt of lightning, a flame and a leaf. The back of it said "Element Badge". Mark pinned it to his T-shirt.

"Leave," Rick said icily. Mark just went through the side door, pocketing Mew's Clone Ball. The feeling was odd, and not at all what he had imagined it would be to win a badge.

He would have to go to the Pokémon Center and get Mew healed, but of course he couldn't hand Nurse Joy a Clone Ball. She'd think he had stolen it.

What he was therefore going to do first was a so-called 'inter-Pokéball transfer'. It could be done at any Pokémon Center using the trading machine. It was basically exactly like trading, except that both of the Pokéballs were owned by the same person and one of them was empty. Afterwards, the Pokéball the Pokémon used to be in would be unusable unless one went and got it recharged for a fee, which was only slightly cheaper than buying a new ball so along with having to waste another Pokéball to put the Pokémon in, it usually didn't pay off. Therefore, trainers rarely did the transfer unless they had a very special reason to.

But Mark did, and therefore he walked up to the trading machine in the corner of the Pokémon Center. He placed Mew's Clone Ball under one of the tubes after making sure nobody was watching, and then one of his normal Pokéballs at the other end. He set the machine to inter-Pokéball transfer mode, and the two balls got sucked up into the metallic tubes. The great screen in the middle of it showed Mew's silhouette traveling across the screen, and Mark did his best to stand in the way so nobody could see it. Finally, both balls dropped down again.

He picked up the Clone Ball, minimized it and put it in his pocket. He didn't know why he felt the need to keep an unusable brainwashing Pokéball, but he just did. Then he took a deep breath and picked up the other Pokéball, now holding Mew.

He walked over to Nurse Joy, trying to look normal, and gave her the Pokéballs.

"Mostly just exhausted," he said. The nurse nodded, placing the Pokéballs on a tray and putting it into the full-size equivalent of a Pocket Healer. After a few beeps were heard, she took them out again and handed them to Mark.

"We hope to see you again," she said, smiling.

Mark nodded. Just then, May noticed him and walked up to him. He remembered what he had said to her before the battle, and cursed silently. He didn't feel like going into these explanations now, but then again they would be better over with.

"What about my Quilava?" she asked, getting straight to the point.

"Well, it's a long story," Mark began, "and I… can't really tell it around all these people."

"Well, I'm going fishing for Pokémon at the Lake of Purity. Why don't you just join me and we'll discuss that on the way?"

"Sure," said Mark, shrugging. They walked out of the Pokémon Center and headed towards the road.

* * *

"You're telling me Rick is making more super-clones?"

"Yeah."

"And that the lying little idiot with my Quilava is his brother?"

Mark nodded. "And the strange Pikachu he had, it was actually a Pikatwo, a Pikachu super-clone."

"Well, I'll be damned," she just said.

Mark was still pondering over whether to tell her about Charmeleon, but decided not to. They were now at the Lake, and May was about to cast out the line.

Suddenly, Mark caught a glimpse of something light blue.

"What was that?"

"What?" May questioned.

"I think I saw… never mind."

"No, what?" asked May eagerly.

"I think there was a Dratini there," Mark said, still staring at the same spot.

"Rubbish," said May, while she was glaringly obviously looking around for it too.

"Over there!"

May threw the rod forward. A small creature dove back under the surface.

"Darn it!" she hissed.

"Hey, I saw it first!" Mark said.

"So what?"

"Then I'm the one who tries to catch it!"

"That's not in any official rules!"

"Draa?"

A small head poked out of the surface. It was pale blue with cute frills at the sides, two adorable eyes watching the two kids argue with interest, and a white muzzle.

Mark and May both took out Pokéballs. May threw it first, but missed by far and the Pokéball sank into the water. Mark accidentally dropped his because he was hurrying so much, and it rolled into the water, where it started sinking too. The Dratini dove down again. Mark could see his Pokéball come to a halt when it reached the bottom. After a few suspenseful seconds, the Dratini swam forward to examine it, poked a little too far, and was dissolved into red energy that was drawn into the ball.

Mark stared at it for a second, and then prepared to jump in.

"Mark, you are being an absolute idiot," May said clearly and pronouncedly, grabbing the back of his T-shirt. "Do you think you can just dive in there? You may see the bottom, but this is the second-deepest lake in all of Ouen, for crying out loud."

It wasn't exactly because of her that Mark decided to rethink this plan. It was more because he already got his other clothes wet. But at the very least, he calmed down.

"Now, look here," May started. "I've got a magnet, and I've got a fishing rod. We can use them to get that Dratini out of the water. But both of them are mine, and it was just luck that Dratini went into your Pokéball and not mine. So…"

"You're going to take my Dratini?" Mark asked loudly. "How about no?"

"You have no choice," she said, smirking as she drew a small magnet out of her pocket and attached it to the end of the line. She carefully lowered it down while Mark gritted his teeth.

"Larvii," came a little voice. Mark gaped.

The owner of the voice was a small, green Pokémon with a triangular-shaped head. It had a small mouth, red eyes with black markings just below them, a red diamond shape on its belly and an odd, bundle-like tail.

"Is everything full of almost-Legendary Pokémon here today?"

May wheeled around, releasing the rod.

"Whoa! That's a Larvitar!"

"Oh, really?" said Mark sarcastically, grabbing the rod while he had the chance and reeling in the Pokéball quickly. Meanwhile, May threw one of her Pokéballs at the Larvitar. Mark didn't bother seeing it wobble; he just hurried away so she wouldn't try to take Dratini too. Judging from May's cry of "YESSS!", she had caught it.

Mark was now starting to think about Mew again. He felt a need to talk to it, but the hotel room was the only safe place to do so.

He ran down the road back to Cleanwater, rushed into the hotel and saw the TV on, not paying much attention to it.

"And finally, today, around two thousand captive-bred Dratini, Larvitar and Bagon were released into the wild all around the world."

Mark abruptly stopped to listen.

"This is a part of a project to help these highly endangered species survive. In fact, they aren't as strong as many people think, and that this misunderstanding has sprouted from the fact that they used to be so rare that only the best of trainers would ever be able to capture them, ultimately making the result Pokémon's full potential released. Less experienced trainers are not likely to manage to evolve them to their final forms and at the very least unable to unleash their full power, according to experts. More on this later."

"Well, that explains it," Mark muttered to himself. Suddenly his capture wasn't as significant, but it still felt as great. The part about only strong trainers being able to make these Pokémon strong made him wonder. Was he one? Was May one? Would he have to face one sometime?

He remembered what he was at the hotel for, went up the stairs to his room, closed the door carefully, sat down on the bed and took Mew's Pokéball slowly out.

"Go… Mew." Mark dropped the ball down, the two halves separated and a sphere of red energy from within took shape into the pinkish-white, catlike creature.

Mark sat completely still. After Mew had stared at him for a while, the Pokémon sat down beside him, wrapping its long tail around him in what appeared to be a greeting of some sort.

"What happened?" asked the Legendary quietly without looking at him, calmly like it was merely asking about the time.

"Well, which parts do you know?" Mark replied, shrugging.

"Three years in darkness, always exhausted, like a puppet, only occasionally thinking clearly, but having no choice but to let my consciousness drift away for a momentary ease of pain…"

Mew's deep, sapphire blue eyes looked into Mark's.

"Now, I am here, once again blessed with freedom."

It took a bit of time for this to sink in.

"Wait – you're not a clone?"

"No," said Mew simply. "Had I known no life outside of being forced into obedience and fighting mindlessly all day long, I would have accepted it. Like the others. Their minds know nothing else. Those will only fight back who know there is something worth fighting for."

"What about Mewtwo²?" Mark asked quietly.

"He is powerful… that allows him to think clearer… they have been strengthening the Clone Ball, but it's too late once he has felt himself being robbed of his free will and thought… I can sense his sorrow at this very moment…"

Mark was quiet for a long while, but then muttered: "That's so… sad."

Mew nodded slowly. "Sad indeed, but there is no way for us to help. I am very fortunate, which brings us back to the original question."

"Rick gave your Pokéball to me, muttering something about there being a curse on you." Mark paused, then added: "Why?"

"He does not realize our feelings. I have fought back; I have weakened my attacks as I could and done my best not to give him the pleasure of winning. So far I have succeeded…"

There was a short silence. The Legendary Pokémon sighed deeply. "We shall see what destiny has in store for him."

"What will you do now?" Mark asked quietly.

"I will go home. I used to reside deep inside Rainbow Woods before he came."

Mark stood slowly up and opened the balcony door. No words were necessary. Mew just nodded, looked at him with those bright blue eyes, and flew outside.

"Maybe I'll see you… you-know-where," Mark called. Mew gave a small nod, then shot up towards the sky.

* * *

On the street below, a bearded man wearing a brown hat and a trench coat jerked his head upwards.

"Did you see that?" he whispered to the Pokémon beside him. It nodded slowly.

"And did you see the boy?"

Another nod. The man's gaze flickered a bit.

"And did you hear what he said?"

He didn't wait for an answer. A weird smile spread across his face.


	11. The Mew Hunter

**Chapter 10: The Mew Hunter**

Mark went down the stairs slowly. He felt incredible. Much to his dismay, he met the one person he wasn't interested in talking to at the stairway as she came walking from the other corridor. She didn't say anything to him and they just walked down the stairs, ignoring each other very ironically.

They both returned the keys, acting like the other wasn't there, and both walked out the same road towards Rainbow Woods, the forest that grew between Cleanwater City and Alumine.

_Oh darn,_ Mark thought. _Mew isn't about to come anywhere near when she's here..._

They just walked for a long while as the tall trees surrounded them in all directions.

"Why are you always following me?" yelled Mark finally in frustration.

"Just because we're walking along the same road at the same time doesn't mean I'm following you, you know," said May, glancing at him.

"But why are you walking just here at the exact same time as I am, refusing to even look at me?" Mark argued.

"You have big issues with me, I see," said May, raising her eyebrow. "Look, I'm not one to start a conversation. I don't talk to people who don't want to talk to me, so I usually just answer when I'm asked. Because you didn't seem very keen on talking to me, I decided not to annoy you by talking. Do you have problems with that?"

Mark blushed. "Eh… did you catch that Larvitar?"

"Yeah, and I noticed you took off with Dratini."

_Darn it!_ Mark hissed to himself.

"So, you going to take Dratini back or something?" he asked defensively.

"Nah," said May. "I've got Larvitar. I think I am the better one out, anyway."

Mark angrily took out Dratini's ball and pointed his Pokédex at it.

"Dratini – dragon Pokémon. This Pokémon sheds its skin to keep control of the massive amounts of life energy it has. So rare it was said to be a myth."

He checked the stats. "Male, level 15," he muttered.

"So is Larvitar," May replied. "Hey, maybe we could, you know, battle them out."

She got that battle glint in her eyes again.

"Fair enough," Mark answered after a moment of thought. "Go!"

He sent out the slender, snake-like dragon on the ground. May threw forward the Pokéball containing the green creature from earlier. It gritted its teeth and waved the long horn on its head like a sword.

"Dratini, Wrap!" Mark called out. The little dragon obeyed, slithering forward to wrap its long body around Larvitar and starting to squeeze as hard as he could.

"Bite!" May ordered quickly, and Larvitar locked its small but powerful jaws around Dratini's body. The dragon released him with a small cry of pain.

"Twister!" Mark shouted. The dragon started glowing turquoise, stood up on the end of its body and started spinning around, faster and faster. Finally, he released a greenish-blue whirlwind that shot at Larvitar.

"Sandstorm!" May hissed. Larvitar raised a paw into the air, its red eyes glowing intensely golden, and a stream of sand materialized out of nowhere behind it and met the whirlwind. Mark clenched his fist; May's face was expressionless until she, with a triumphant smile, saw that the whirlwind, now also a wheel of sand, started moving back towards Dratini. One thing sat in Mark's head: Dragons were weak to their own attacks. The whirlwind engulfed Dratini. The small Pokémon screamed as he was bombarded by the wheel of sand along with the dragon power contained in the whirlwind. He was whipped into the air and came down unconscious.

"Return," Mark grumbled. He looked hatefully at May as he attached the Pokéball to his belt again. She sighed.

"Look, we don't need to start some rivalry about this. I beat you, but that's no big deal. I hate it when people hate me. Let's just be friends, okay?"

She held forward her hand. Mark hesitated, but then shook it.

"Hey, there's a café at the forest's edge, just before we get out of it. If you have money for yourself, we can eat there," May offered.

"Sure," Mark replied.

They ventured through the forest, now without the tense atmosphere, and Mark felt a lot better to know that she wasn't plotting to steal Dratini or anything. They came across a few weak wild Pokémon too, but just took turns beating them instead of trying to catch them, subconsciously trying to avoid another Dratini situation. Finally, they reached the café. It was a pleasantly green, very small-looking wooden house with red decorations, dug a little into the ground so it seemed even smaller. A faded, red sign above the door said "Rainbow café".

"I've got to admit, this looks miniscule," said Mark, staring at the house.

"Come on, I ate here on the way from Alumine to Cleanwater, it isn't as small as it looks," said May, dragging him down the small stairs leading to the door.

She was right. Somehow magically, it was much bigger on the inside than outside. Small, red, round tables were positioned very randomly all around the floor, with anything from one to five matching red chairs around them. People sat here and there, most of them deep in either conversation or thought.

The kids sat down at a table near the door and ordered some toast. After eating, they paid and were about to stand up when Mark noticed that his Pokéball belt had no Pokéballs on it anymore.

"Wha… did you take my Pokéballs?" he asked, scanning the floor for any traces of them.

"Of course not," said May offended. "I'm not a hypocrite."

"What happened to them?" asked Mark hysterically, looking under the chairs and everything.

"Mark, Pokéballs don't fall off by themselves," said May seriously.

"You mean…"

"Somebody stole them, yes. Not me, but somebody."

Mark looked frantically around. "Who?"

May put up a thoughtful expression. "Maybe that weird guy in the trench coat. He sat down just behind you, didn't order anything and then after a while hurried out of the door, turning left."

"That means… to Alumine," Mark breathed. He grabbed May's arm.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go after him!"

He sprinted towards the city. May just sighed and walked, letting him shake her off.

* * *

Trench coat, trench coat…

Mark came to the city's edge, panting, and looked around. Alumine was medium-sized, but rather dirty and not an extremely pleasant place to live; most of the buildings were just blocks of concrete painted in some disgusting color that was thankfully starting to fall off. One building stood out, and was at the end of the main street Mark was entering; it was the famous Alumine Gym, constructed out of Skarmory feathers and shaped like one end of a vertical eye sticking up from the ground, with the doors as the pupil. It reflected the sunlight off a million steel surfaces, all facing in slightly different directions. Mark had heard that the Gym Leader there used the sunlight to help him win battles thanks to the opponent having a hard time seeing around.

A bearded man, most of his bearded face hidden in shadow beneath a brown hat and indeed wearing a trench coat, entered an extremely ugly, sickeningly yellow, large building just to Mark's right. It took a second for him to realize that this was the man he was looking for. He was about to follow him when he heard May's voice.

"Hey," she said. "Wasn't that him?"

"Yeah," Mark replied. "You coming with me?"

She stared blankly at him. "What, you're just going to knock on his door and say 'Hey, you stole my Pokémon, can I have them back?'"

"Well, yeah, pretty much," said Mark simply.

"You're crazy," May sighed, shaking her head.

"So what?" Mark snapped. "If you're not coming, fine."

He walked firmly towards the yellow building and knocked on the door. The trench coat guy answered it, of course not wearing it anymore. He stared at Mark for a second, then shoved him inside and closed the door.

"You!" the man spoke in a hoarse, quiet voice. His eyes were black and extremely open, and a black full beard covered much of his face.

"Here… I've been… you didn't have… must… get…"

On second thought, he also seemed a little bit crazy.

"WHERE?" he suddenly bellowed, grabbing Mark's arm firmly. Okay, maybe quite a bit crazy.

"Where is what?" asked Mark, puzzled.

"You-know-where!" he hissed.

More like 'an absolute madman who should've been locked in long ago'.

"What?" Mark questioned, even more confused.

"You know very well what I'm talking about! My life! My dedication! Where is 'you-know-where'?"

Suddenly, it dawned on to Mark what he was talking about.

"You mean… Mew?"

"What else could I mean?" the guy snarled. "Look, I have spent my entire life searching for Mew! I MUST FIND IT!"

"Uh," said Mark, backing away, "why didn't you just give up on it long ago?" Afterwards, he always thought of this had been a very stupid question.

The man took a few deep breaths, looking a lot less mad afterwards.

"I'll tell you the whole story… doesn't matter… we have plenty of time…

You can call me the Mew Hunter for convenience. I started my Pokémon journey around your age… I lived in Johto then. I got a Totodile as my first Pokémon… chose it for the jaws, mind you… I've always been a lot for sharp things… but by then I was already fascinated by the one Pokémon that possessed the genes of them all."

He didn't explain what he meant, but he didn't need to; Mark knew he was referring to Mew.

"I wanted to find it and claim it as mine… but of course, such a thing required a lot of preparation… I got a Sandshrew and a Sneasel, and managed to dig up a Kabuto fossil and get it resurrected… I evolved Totodile, Sandshrew and Kabuto, and with these four Pokémon, I started an unofficial Gym of Pokémon with sharp claws or fangs, just for the profits. We are in the Gym right now."

Mark looked around; that sounded sensible. The floor was marked as a Pokémon arena and the ceiling was very high. Two large windows with six panes each were on the wall to the left, and seemed to be the only lighting in the arena.

"I also studied Pokéballs. After earning the money to buy a Master Ball, I used my knowledge to make some modifications to it… I made it so that the Pokémon inside it would be unable to escape a certain distance away from the ball itself. I was going to use it on Mew. And once I had made it, I closed the Gym and headed out to search for the ancestor of all Pokémon…

But I had competition. Rick, from the Cleanwater City Gym, was also heading towards the same goal. He had a Pokéball that would capture anything and put it under total control, weakening its mind to obey everything it was told. A disgusting idea… I knew that it must not be done to Mew… I was going to earn Mew's trust, just like I had done with my other Pokémon… but he was going to use Mew as a slave. I could not let that happen. I was determined to find Mew first.

And one day, I stumbled upon Mew, sleeping in the shadow of a tree. But Rick was there too. We threw our balls at the same time… from my studies, I knew that if a Pokémon was hit with two balls at once, it would be torn apart and killed unless it collected all of itself into one ball… the impact of the two balls would wake it up, and I was confident that Mew would choose me… who would choose total slavery over a temporary limitation of freedom?

But Mew chose Rick… to this very day the thought has haunted me, why did Mew prefer Rick's control? I have never found out why…"

The man's voice had slowly reverted to the mad, desperate one throughout the last few sentences.

"I went through a long period of depression, but finally I decided to reopen my Gym, caught two new Pokémon and forgot about Mew. But today, I saw Mew again… I saw it fly out of a window… and you were addressing it, stating that you two supposedly would meet 'you-know-where'."

He paused, and then spat out in a totally different voice: "Now, I'd like you to tell me where that place is."

Mark didn't like idea of telling this person anything about where to find Mew. He didn't sound like he was lying when he talked about "earning Mew's trust" rather than forcing it to do anything, but he could very well be mad enough to have a somewhat twisted definition of earning somebody's trust.

"No," he therefore answered. "I'm not telling you."

"I'm afraid you mistook that for a question!" the man barked. "Speak, or things will get nasty."

"No," said Mark firmly.

The man got a very sickening glint in his eyes.

"Really?" he said slowly, glaring at Mark with the kind of a smile Mark had seen on villains in movies. Mark noticed his hand slowly picking a Pokéball from his belt.

"You know, my friend here is amazingly convincing. Want to meet him?"

Mark's eyes darted towards the door as he thought of making a run for it.

"Well, you're meeting him whether you like it or not," the man hissed, hurling the Pokéball powerfully towards Mark. Something big and green came out of it, dove straight at Mark at amazing speed and knocked him down. He felt his head hit the wall hard. A sharp pain seared through his head as his vision blacked out for a second; when it came back, he was met with a not-so-pleasant sight.

The thing that had hit him was a Pokémon commonly associated with horror films, blood and stereotypical evil. It was somewhat like a light green, bipedal mantis with a reptilian head, but most importantly, two long, wickedly sharp blades attached to its arms. As sickening as it was, Mark found one of them positioned a centimeter or so from his throat.

The Scyther held him firmly down so that he couldn't have moved even if he hadn't been stiff from the sheer shock of having his life so suddenly put on the edge of a knife. He felt his heart pumping like crazy, every vein throbbing like it was about to burst. To crown it all, his stomach apparently fancied being empty at the moment. Seeing what was about to happen, the Pokémon turned Mark's head slightly to the left before he threw up.

"Aw, you don't like his reasoning?" the man asked in a mocking tone. "Well, too bad. Feel like talking now?"

"No," Mark choked up, sounding a lot braver than he felt.

"I'll give you two five minutes to be alone," said the man, checking his watch. "Talk then or…" He ran his finger quickly over his throat, then turned around towards a side door and slammed it shut.

Mark was left in the arena with the bug Pokémon, not sure whether the five minutes were meant for him to think about it or just to discomfort him even more. A few seconds convinced him that it was the latter.

His horrified gaze ran over to the Pokémon. His stomach twitched just from looking at it again. The beast's eyes were completely colorless; the socket was shaped like a skewed rectangle, and the whites were pearly and veinless, disrupted only by the jet-black slits that were the pupils. It was staring straight at his face, completely expressionlessly.

Mark wondered what would happen if he just told the guy that Mew was at some random place and got released. He could just go and tell the police and get the Mew Hunter arrested. But while the man was clearly mad, he didn't seem stupid at all. Hadn't he thought of that? Mark whirred through the last things the man had said, and realized that he had never actually said Mark would be released if he did tell of Mew's location. He got a horrible sinking feeling. Was this the end, whatever he did?

He started imagining what it was like to be killed. Was there life after death? What kind of a feeling would it be? Would it happen right away? The good thing was that he knew Scyther took very much care in sharpening their scythes so their cuts were virtually painless… from his point of view, it wouldn't be that bad a death…

Oh, come on, he thought bitterly to himself. You don't want to get your damn throat cut by a mad Scyther!

_The Scyther isn't mad,_ said the perfectionist voice in his head. _His trainer is._

Yeah, but it's the same thing, Pokémon do what their trainers say…

_Do they?_

You mean… negotiating with a Scyther? You crazy?

_Maybe, but it can't hurt, can it? You have nothing to lose._

Oh man. First sign of insanity: staging an imaginary conversation with oneself.

But then again, there was a point in that. He had nothing to lose.

"Eh…" Mark said hesitatingly, immediately regretting it. But the Scyther decided to answer nevertheless.

"You scared?"

Mark didn't find any longing to answer that question.

"Death is not to be feared, for it is the only thing that we all have in common."

Seeing the confused look on Mark's face, the bug added: "It's an old Scyther saying. It means: why fear death of all things, when it's the exact one thing we can be positive will happen to us all sooner or later?"

If that was supposed to be comforting, it was failing miserably.

"You hate that guy, right?" Mark asked weakly.

"What would you know?" Scyther replied.

"But… you wouldn't actually…"

"Why not?" asked Scyther calmly.

"Well… you wouldn't feel good, would you?" Mark suggested. Scyther smiled faintly.

"Trying to appeal to my conscience, now are you? But tell me one thing, human: is it your honest belief that Scyther have a conscience?"

"Eh, well, yeah, I liked to think so, at least," Mark said awkwardly.

"Of course we have a conscience," Scyther said bitterly. "And all the emotions you can feel to go with it. But if you knew that, you should also be able to realize that being a predator leaves you with a choice of permanently blocking out everything called 'pity for a victim', or starving to death."

"Will you get anything out of killing me?" Mark tried another approach.

"No, but I'm not the only Pokémon here. Take Kabutops. His scythes aren't as sharp as mine, I'll admit, he doesn't think too much about the maintenance…"

Mark quickly changed the subject to the first thing he could think of.

"Eh… you wouldn't want blood on your nice, clean scythes, would you?" he said out of the blue.

Scyther sighed. "Look, this is getting ridiculous now and I have the feeling that you aren't about to say a single logical thing from now on, so why bother? Besides, I'm not the one who decides what happens here. You were given five minutes as a chance to think over your situation, and you've been wasting them talking to me. While I do appreciate a chat, I feel it's my duty to inform you that you're not buying yourself a single minute of additional life."

Mark decided to follow the Pokémon's advice; funnily enough, he had managed to forget about the scythe threatening him while they talked, but now he was starting to feel uncomfortable again.

Then suddenly, a wonderful thought struck him like lightning. He felt warmth spread around his whole body. He wheeled through it in his head a few times, yes, it appeared to work…

The side door opened and the Mew Hunter came back in.

"So," he said slowly, walking up to Mark, "are you going to speak out?"

"No," said Mark, his heart beating like crazy. Despite having found a plan that should work, all of his courage had flown out of the window during the last five minutes and wasn't about to return.

"You want to die, kid?" the Mew Hunter snarled.

"No," Mark answered quietly.

"Well, newsflash: there's no alternative!" growled the Mew Hunter. "Telling me or not?"

"…not." Mark's voice was trembling. This was it. Either he was right, or he was wrong and then his life would end right here.

The man went white for a split second. "OK, then," he said in an odd tone. "It will be quick…"

Mark closed his eyes, but Scyther's scythe did not move. He smiled; he had been right. The Mew Hunter didn't want to lose him so easily.

"You were never going to kill me, were you?" Mark asked, feeling oddly secure.

"Well, let me tell you one thing… you are never going out of here, never… until you tell me where Mew is…"

"You stole my Pokémon, right? Can I have them back?" Mark decided that he could think of a way to escape later; it was time for what he originally came for.

The man took out what Mark recognized as his Pokéballs out of his pocket.

"You want them?" he asked. "Win them from me… in a battle." He smiled slyly.

"Sure," Mark answered, although he couldn't figure out why the man would want a battle right now.

"Scyther, come," said the Mew Hunter. The Pokémon released Mark and stood up as Mark also did so, but Scyther just stood there by Mark's side.

"Rob," he said calmly, "I can do a bit of empty threatening for you, but I will not aid you in kidnapping or taking hostages."

The Mew Hunter went white.

"Get over here! Now!"

"No," said Scyther, not moving.

"TRAITOR!" Rob bellowed.

"Rob, please," Scyther said. Was there a hint of sadness in his eyes? "Is Mew really worth wasting your life for?"

The Mew Hunter hesitated, unmistakably looking a bit sad too, but then said: "I'm sorry, Scyther… but Mew is my life. Either you're with me, or with him."

"Then I'm with him," said Scyther, stepping nearer to Mark, "for the Rob I used to know."

Mark was very confused by this; there was true pain in Scyther's voice, but who could miss such a man?

"Uh, my Pokémon? So I can battle?" Mark asked hesitatingly.

The Mew Hunter glared nastily at Scyther and then looked back at Mark. "Looks like you have one already. In fact… a match for all the others."

"What, this is going to be a… five on one?" Mark asked in disbelief. "But…"

"Go, Kabutops!" Rob snarled, sending out a brown, bony Pokémon with a flat, triangular-shaped head, two small eyes and blades on its arms, similar to Scyther's.

"Kabu?" asked the Pokémon, turning back to its trainer with a confused expression.

"Scyther has betrayed us," he growled.

"I'm not fighting him, he's my friend," Kabutops protested.

"Kabutops, let's just… get this over with," said Scyther with a horrible, suicidal kind of expression.

"Skaaa!"

Everybody looked up. A Skarmory had just been sent out of a Pokéball high up near the ceiling. Mark's heart took a leap as he saw the grid covering the end of the ventilation pipe up there in the corner fall down with a lot of noise, revealing a blue-haired girl's head. She jumped onto Skarmory's back and flew down. Mark had never imagined he'd ever be so happy to see her.

"How about no?" she said coldly, recalling the steel vulture. "I've got five Pokémon. I take this one," she removed one Pokéball from her necklace and put it in her pocket, "and now there are four left. With him," she pointed at Scyther, "this is a fair five-on-five. OK then, go, Butterfree!"

She sent out her giant butterfly. It soared in the air, facing Kabutops. The Mew Hunter seemed in a shock at first, but then just seemed to accept these conditions.

"Kabutops, Slash."

"Sleep Powder!" May snarled. Butterfree flapped its wings, releasing a cloud of greenish spores as Kabutops leapt upwards, its blades raised. Inhaling the powder, the fossil Pokémon seemed to get drowsy, and as Butterfree flew a bit higher up, Kabutops fell asleep in mid-air and crashed back into the floor.

"Finish it with a Giga drain!" May commanded. The sleeping Kabutops took a deep green glow and small green orbs of energy started ripping lose from its body, the Pokémon twitching violently with each one. The orbs circled Butterfree until all of Kabutops's glow had faded; then they sank into the butterfly's body.

"Kabutops, return," said the Mew Hunter, his voice trembling. "Sneasel, go! Tear its wings to shreds!"

Mark suddenly realized why the Mew Hunter had wanted a battle in the first place – his plan had originally been to injure Mark's Pokémon enough to make him tell of Mew's location in exchange for him not hurting them more.

A small, catlike creature with big eyes, a blood red feather-like thing in place of its left ear and two long, sharp claws on each front paw came out of the Pokéball.

"Snee!" it screeched, starting to run across the room. The Sneasel actually ran a short way up the wall before leaping with great agility towards the butterfly Pokémon, stabbing its claws into its wings and dragging it to the ground. As they were about to crash, Sneasel ripped itself loose and managed to jump up on Butterfree's back. It wasn't really necessary; Butterfree would've been out cold upon crashing either way, its wings in a very bad condition. Butterfree twitched a bit, like a fly that was about to die.

"Return," said May calmly, ignoring her Pokémon's state. "Skarmory, go and use a Steel Wing."

The metallic vulture burst out of the Pokéball and swooped down towards Sneasel's shape. The agile little cat dodged it and attempted to scratch at Skarmory's steel feathers, but no avail; it didn't even leave a scratch.

"Icy Wind!" ordered the Mew Hunter. Some of the muscles in his face twitched.

The Sneasel jumped up, spreading out its arms, and opened its mouth to release a powerful gust of icy wind, hail and snow. Skarmory wasn't particularly hurt, but clearly slowed down a bit, allowing Sneasel to dart to another place and releasing another blast of cold wind.

"Drill Peck!" May ordered hastily. Skarmory flew up and started spinning, swooping down at the cat. The Sneasel just leapt out of the way with ease, but Skarmory turned and kept gaining speed. Finally, its sharp beak stabbed into Sneasel's back. The cat let out a horrible screech, but then fell forward, blood gushing out of the wound.

"Come back," said the Mew Hunter. "Feraligatr, show that bird not to mess with us."

He sent out a huge, bulky, bipedal blue alligator. It had red spikes on its hunched back and a very powerful-looking yellow lower jaw.

"Fer-al!" it cried, showing all of its long fangs.

"Drill Peck," May ordered. Skarmory dove down again, spinning.

"Crunch," said the Mew Hunter evilly. His Feraligatr opened its mouth, and locked its jaws around Skarmory's body when it came near enough. After a few seconds of war between the steel and the jaws, Skarmory's body started crumbling together. The vulture screeched, and sensing that this could very easily kill it, May quickly recalled her Pokémon.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" May said determinedly, throwing forward her third Pokéball. A yellow, bipedal rodent with two long, black-tipped ears and red spots on its cheeks came out of the ball. Its cheeks started sparkling with electricity and then it released a bolt of lightning that shot at the blue alligator. It was too slow to dodge, but as most slow Pokémon, it made up for the lack of speed with more endurance. While it did roar in pain and stagger backwards slightly, it didn't look too weakened afterwards.

"Earthquake," said the Mew Hunter, clenching his fist. The alligator lifted one foot off the floor and then stomped it powerfully, making the floor ripple in waves like when Sandshrew used the attack. Pikachu attempted to jump up and avoid it, but ended up getting caught anyway. Releasing a flurry of electric sparks, the rodent dropped limply down, unconscious.

"Pikachu, come back," said May, biting her lip. "Lapras, now my faith is in you!"

She sent out a very big, blue, sea turtle-like Pokémon with a bumpy shell and kind-looking eyes.

"Sing," May ordered. Lapras started singing a sweet melody, and Feraligatr's eyes slowly got drowsy.

"Slash!" commanded the Mew Hunter quickly. It was still too late; Feraligatr's eyelids sank downwards and finally it collapsed, fast asleep.

"Body Slam," said May calmly. Lapras started paddling forward to finish Feraligatr off, and knowing that leaving it in was pointless, the Mew Hunter took out the Pokéball and recalled the alligator. He then hesitated a bit, first grabbing one Pokéball like out of instinct, but then deciding on another.

"Go, Sandslash."

Mark wondered why he had made this choice; Sandslash was very weak to Water attacks.

"Surf," May smirked. Lapras spewed water into the air, which came down on the floor and flooded in a huge wave towards Sandslash, soaking it and leaving it fainted. Easy one.

Rob smiled evilly. "Fangcat, go wild."

Out of the Pokéball came another Pokémon commonly associated with horror movies; it was a pretty big, slender, cream-colored feline – with two enormous, bloody fangs hanging down from its mouth.

It fixed its hungry eyes on Lapras and then leapt forward with a roar, sinking its fangs deep into the turtle's neck. Lapras let out a high-pitched wail; all the color drained from May's face as she recalled her Pokémon.

"Is Fangcat going to be willing to attack you?" Mark whispered to Scyther.

"Her?" Scyther snorted. "She'd attack anything that's not Rob. She'd be overjoyed about being allowed to kill in this battle if she was able to express any emotion other than bloodlust and hate."

"But you have to battle her," Mark said, his eyes wide.

"Of course I have to," said Scyther simply, walking forward. "Oh, and you don't need to give me orders; I know what I'm doing."

"Fangcat, punish him!" the Mew Hunter roared.

"Fffffang!" Fangcat hissed, her eyes fixed on Scyther. He watched her closely too.

Suddenly, Scyther darted upwards. Fangcat leapt amazingly high after him, but he just flew even higher. Fangcat turned around in the air, knowing that Scyther was about to try to attack her from the back as she fell. When he dove down to slash at her, a well-aimed strike resulted in one of her fangs running Scyther's body through.

He was stiff for a split second, his eyes wide, but then he raised both of his scythes and started slashing like mad. She was cut and bloody all over when they landed on the floor, her fang still entering his upper body at the front and coming out at the back. He was breathing rapidly.

"Fangcat, return!" the Mew Hunter said, white as a sheet of paper, as he held forward a Pokéball. The feline was absorbed into red energy and disappeared. Scyther was left lying alone on the floor. He then started muttering something Mark recognized as the saying he had mentioned to Mark earlier:

"Death is not to be feared… for it is the only thing… that we all… have… in common…"

Scyther closed his eyes. The Mew Hunter took out a Pokéball, wide-eyed, but it just melted into thin air. Mark's heart was beating; Pokéballs didn't do that unless…

May walked slowly towards the motionless mantis, observing him for a few seconds. Finally, she bent down and poked his shiny green armor. She quickly pulled her hand back.

"He's dead," she clarified after a moment's pause. It didn't surprise Mark. The Mew Hunter just stared at the lifeless Pokémon on the floor.

"…no," he then whispered. "No! NO!"

"Oh yes," said May mercilessly, stepping away from the body. "That bloody beast of yours killed him, on your own orders."

The Mew Hunter dropped to his knees and buried his face in his hands. "Scyther…no…"

Mark was amazed at how quickly his whole attitude changed; just a few minutes ago, he had been the madman who seemed to want nothing more than see something killed, but now he looked completely broken down.

Mark hadn't exactly known Scyther for a very long or pleasant time, but couldn't help feeling horrible.

For ten seconds or so, everything was silent except from the Mew Hunter's sobbing. Then, all of a sudden, the big window farther away on the wall was shattered to pieces. Even the Mew Hunter looked up to see what was happening.

In through the window flew a small, pink, catlike creature with big, sad, sapphire blue eyes.

"It is such a shame," said Mew gravely, not to anybody in particular, levitating three meters or so above Scyther's body, "when the young die…"

The Legendary Pokémon's big eyes turned to the Mew Hunter.

"Especially when one knows that when it comes right down to it… it's one's own fault." There was a brief silence.

"Your life was meant to be longer," said the Legendary Pokémon then sadly to the lifeless body on the floor. The beautiful eyes closed, and Mew was enveloped in a reddish-pink aura. So was Scyther's body.

The big hole in the middle of his upper body closed. The blood on the floor disappeared. The glow faded, first on Scyther, then on Mew.

Scyther's eyes opened.

He blinked a few times and then slowly stood up.

"I'm… back..." Scyther whispered, looking around. Mark realized that he had just witnessed a miracle – an example of the incredible power of the Legendary Pokémon…

"I won the battle," said the Mew Hunter suddenly. "Scyther died."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Mark protested. "Fangcat fainted first!"

"But Scyther died," the Mew Hunter hissed.

"Looks pretty darn alive to me now," Mark replied. The mantis was seemingly talking to Mew.

"But he was…"

"Hey, OK, let's assume you won," May interrupted. "Then we'll give in and tell you where Mew is: over there. Now give Mark his Pokémon so we can leave."

The Mew Hunter jerked his head in Mew's direction, like he was first now realizing that it was Mew and not something else.

"I will change my whereabouts now," said Mew to him. "I shall travel… and you shall not find me."

The Mew Hunter grabbed a Pokéball, but Mew's eyes just glowed a deep purple, its shape started to flicker and then it disappeared in a flash of violet.

"I will find you… I will…" he muttered, staring at the place where Mew used to be. Then he seemed to snap out of his trance, fixed his gaze on Scyther and reached for his Pokéball.

"But… Scyther's Pokéball melted!" he realized as his hand found only air.

"Yes," said Scyther slowly. "Mew told me… I'm not yours anymore…"

The Mew Hunter's eyes widened.

"Rob, we could go back and live our old life. But are you ready to give up on Mew for that?"

"I have to go… I have to find Mew… I'm sorry," said the Mew Hunter.

"Then… I wish you the best of luck," said Scyther sorrowfully before taking off and flying out of the window to freedom.

The Mew Hunter stared after him.

"Um… my Pokémon?" Mark asked carefully.

"Sure…" said the Mew Hunter absent-mindedly, handing him his Pokéballs like he had no idea what he was doing. Mark quietly attached them back to his belt and the kids hurried out of the building before the Mew Hunter realized where they were.

* * *

"Wow," May said on the way to the Alumine Pokémon Center. "That was some adventure…"

"Where were you the whole time, by the way?" Mark asked curiously.

"Well, when the guy took you inside and you didn't come out again, I got a bit suspicious so I walked around the house a bit and found the end of that ventilation pipe. Then I got into it and ended up at your end, and watched and heard everything. I didn't want to come down sooner because I didn't think it would be smart to give Scyther a reason to… erm, change the plan…"

"Why didn't you just call the police?" Mark asked.

"Well…" May bit her lip, "you could say I'm… not much for the way they do things."

Mark decided not to question her further about that. "I feel a bit sorry for that man, though. He's totally brainwashed."

May nodded. "We're here."

The familiar, red, dome-shaped roof of the Pokémon Center towered over them. A sign outside it informed them that the Pokémon Center had free rooms for all Pokémon trainers.

"Wait!"

Scyther walked through a crowd of people who automatically split to the sides, giving him a clear path.

"What's your name?" he asked Mark out of the blue.

"Mark," he replied, not sure what Scyther wanted.

"Mark, can I come with you?"

"What?" Mark stared at the mantis.

"You wouldn't understand, it's complicated, but I have nothing to live for in the wild. Rob's Mew-obsession has taken over him. It's either you… or wasting the life that Mew gave me another chance at."

Mark nodded.

"One condition, though," said Scyther worriedly. "This may sound strange, but… don't report him to the police. I've known him for three years, and usually he is a wonderful person and friend. Trust me, you've only seen the one truly bad side of him. He doesn't deserve jail."

Mark nodded again.

"Got a spare Pokéball?" Scyther questioned. Mark took out the last one that had come with his Pokéball belt, and tapped Scyther with it. He was dissolved into red light and sucked into the ball. It immediately pinged; Scyther showed no resistance against it.

It was quite an interesting Pokémon team Mark was going to have now. An abandoned Charmeleon, a baby Eevee who didn't know what Pokémon training was, a Sandshrew who had just gained his very first bit of confidence, a starved, weird Gyarados, and a depressed Scyther.

May just stared.


	12. The Lizard and the Mantis

**Chapter 11: The Lizard and the Mantis**

Mark was starting to feel uncomfortable again when they waited for their Pokémon to be healed. Nurse Joy had informed May that thankfully, Lapras and Skarmory would recover.

This Pokémon Center, like the one in Cleanwater City, had a pink furry carpet and red couches scattered around randomly. As Mark sat motionlessly in one, he drifted into sleep.

The dream was just a very short flash of scythes, eyes with slits for pupils, green reptilian heads, forty centimeter-long blood-covered fangs, death and a bit more blood. Then he snapped back awake, breathing rapidly.

Mark calmed down upon realizing that he was in the Pokémon Center. May was just bringing his Pokémon back.

"Thanks," he mumbled, attaching them to his belt. "Hey, I think I'm going outside for a bit… I guess I could use some fresh air, and maybe I'll introduce Scyther properly to my Pokémon."

She nodded, and Mark stood up, walking outside. The sun was slowly sinking into the horizon in the far west. The air was comfortably cool, although it couldn't exactly be called fresh.

"Go, Charmeleon, Sandshrew, Eevee, Dratini."

The four Pokémon materialized on the ground and cried out their names.

"Um… did you know that you were stolen?" Mark asked.

"Yes, we know the whole story," said Charmeleon. "But we're back with you now, so does that really matter?"

"Well, you see… I've gotten a new Pokémon…"

Mark felt one of his Pokéballs wobble a bit; then the two halves separated. A beam of red shot out of it and took shape into Scyther right next to Mark. As the mantis Pokémon formed, the four smaller ones backed away.

"Mark…" asked Charmeleon hesitatingly, "isn't that the thief's Scyther?"

"Yeah," Mark said. "He joined us."

Charmeleon stared at him for a second, but then asked: "Erm… what the heck happened to your common sense?"

"What?" Mark asked, confused.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Charmeleon snapped. "You're opening the door wide to a Pokémon that was going to kill you just half an hour ago!"

"He wasn't going to!" Mark objected. "He even refused to battle for the Mew Hunter!"

"Who says that isn't a part of the plan too?" said Charmeleon, eying Scyther suspiciously.

"I…"

"I can't force you to trust me," said Scyther just, "and really, I can't blame you for not trusting me. I'm not used to being trusted."

"Oh, come on," said Mark annoyed, "just give us your word that you aren't going to hurt anybody."

"I don't make promises," said the mantis calmly. "Not to you, not to somebody who won't believe it anyway, and not to anybody else. Breaking a promise is painful, and the only way to avoid the pain is not to make the promise."

Mark was starting to feel a bit more skeptical about Scyther's company now, but he didn't want to admit defeat right away.

"See?" Charmeleon snorted. "At least he has the decency not to go behind his words – by not giving any words to go behind!"

"Let Mark decide," said Scyther expressionlessly. "He's heard both sides of the argument, and it's him who we're trying to affect. Let him be the judge."

"Guys," Mark said decisively towards his Pokémon, "I want all of you to come over here and accept Scyther as one of you."

The mantis offered his right scythe for a handshake, but Mark's four much smaller Pokémon just flinched, apart from Charmeleon, who glared at Mark like he couldn't believe this. Nobody moved, until finally – much to Mark's surprise – Sandshrew walked nervously forward. He glanced anxiously at the raised scythe, but decided not to come near it so he just nodded and sat down.

"Great. Anybody else?" Mark asked, smiling.

He was even more surprised when Eevee tilted his head and approached the giant bug. He even raised his right front paw to touch the top of Scyther's blade. He smiled faintly, moving his arm slightly. Eevee jumped, but showed no signs of regret when he took place beside Mark.

Dratini then slithered forward. His black, beady eyes looked curiously up at the bug's reptilian head, and what could only be a cute little smile appeared on his face. Scyther nodded slowly, and the dragon crawled to Eevee's side.

Now only Charmeleon was left, and he showed no signs of being about to come over. He just gave Scyther a nasty glare, folded his arms and then turned his back firmly towards the rest of the Pokémon, flicking his tail flame.

"Fine," said Scyther matter-of-factly. "We'll have it your way, then…"

And he also crossed his bladed arms and turned his back towards Charmeleon in the exact same manner.

"Oh, come on," Mark sighed, but the two Pokémon didn't move.

"Mark!"

May came out of the Pokémon Center and eyed Scyther and Charmeleon curiously before turning to Mark.

"Hey, there's supposedly a decent, cheap restaurant in town called The Gamesharked Skarmory. I've been given directions, and I'm going there now. Are you coming?"

"Yeah, sure," Mark said, recalling his Pokémon and trying to act like there was nothing wrong. He was thankful that May wasn't the type of person to ask questions.

* * *

After the meal, May told Mark that the Pokémon Center offered cheap accommodation for trainers. Mark noticed that she seemed to be obsessed with everything being cheap, but didn't mention that. They just walked back to the Pokémon Center and checked in.

Once Mark was alone in his room, he undressed, put on his pajamas and, after a bit of thought, sent out his five Pokémon small enough to fit in the room. He noticed Charmeleon starting to growl at Scyther, but interrupted quickly:

"Hey, now we're just going to sleep, all right? No arguing, insulting, attacking, or anything of the sort."

Scyther and Charmeleon nodded, and lay down on the floor with the other Pokémon. Mark made carefully sure that they weren't going to do anything before closing his eyes.

Scyther suddenly leapt at him, his scythes raised. Mark gasped, only to discover that the mantis was lying peacefully on the floor, fast asleep.

"Stupid dream," he muttered, turning around.

Fangcat snuck up on Charmeleon and prepared to sink her fangs into his unsuspecting body; he was turned around with his arms folded and didn't see her…

Mark woke with a start, finding that this was also a dream.

"Darn it," he mumbled. He dug his face into his fluffy pillow. Suddenly, he had no face and was throwing a black and red Pokéball at Mew…

Knowing in the dream that it was a dream, he broke out of it by forcing his eyes open. He screwed them shut again, staring at the blackness on the back of his eyelids. Two bright yellow eyes opened in the dark and he woke up yet again, his heart stinging uncomfortably.

He waited, and waited. Mew started laughing manically, threatening to kill Eevee. Mewtwo² lay dead in a pool of blood on the floor, but the Mew Hunter was trying to resurrect him by muttering old sayings. Mark ordered Scyther to kill May because she was trying to steal Charmeleon.

Mark knew it was all a stupid dream, but let it all happen in his head without waking up. It was somehow relieving to let all of this day's happenings mix up into something insane.

* * *

A young man stared out of the window at the stars. His gray eyes reflected their light.

"Emotions…" he muttered out of the blue. "Strong ones… fighting to keep them inside… interesting…"

He blinked.

* * *

Charmeleon lay on the floor, pretending to be asleep. Mark wasn't mumbling in his sleep anymore; he had most likely fallen into deep sleep.

_Mark is being stupid,_ he thought grimly. _Does he have any idea what a Scyther could do in the night? Especially one who can break out of Pokéballs by himself… _

And that bug is acting all arrogant, trying to be the wise one, trying to look good… but I see right through him… if Mark doesn't want to believe me, fine…

_ I'll show that overgrown mantis one day… I'll show him…_

With a grin, he closed his eyes. He dreamt not the happenings of this day, but a plan for the future.


	13. Let There Be Light

**Chapter 12: Let There Be Light**

Mark woke up the next morning, feeling like he hadn't slept at all. He didn't remember much of his dreams, except that they had all included some sort of a tweaked version of something that had happened the day before. Except the ones with the yellow eyes, he wasn't sure where that came from.

He blinked, staring at the ceiling as he still lay in the bed. What would he do today…

Mark smiled at his own stupidity when he realized the obvious: he hadn't challenged the official Pokémon Gym of Alumine yet.

He sat up and blinked some more. His Pokémon were still asleep. He got dressed quietly and recalled them without waking them up.

After breakfast, he headed straight towards the magnificent, shiny building. He had heard that the Gym Leader used shine to his advantage, and suddenly started getting a bit nervous. He had been battling the previous Gym Leader yesterday! This was a whole new one, most likely with considerably stronger Pokémon.

He was pretty confident that the Gym Leader had to possess at least one Skarmory. Living in this town, it seemed absolutely absurd for a Gym Leader not to have one, especially seeing as the Gym was constructed out of their feathers.

And Steel types like Skarmory were resistant to… a lot of things, if Mark remembered correctly. Most physical moves, at the very least, and a lot of special ones too. But they were definitely weak to Fire, meaning Charmeleon would be at an advantage.

Eevee, however, would be toast. He could only perform Return and probably Tackle, Tail Whip and stuff like that. Nothing that would ever harm a Steel-type to any extent.

Sandshrew would have a very hard time against a Skarmory, too; his Earthquake would not affect a bird Pokémon, and aside from that he could only scratch and use Poison Sting, which Mark believed was completely ineffective on Steel Pokémon.

Gyarados and Dratini's dragon flames wouldn't harm a Skarmory much either; Steel was the only type that resisted Dragon moves. As far as Mark knew, Gyarados didn't know any Water attacks. Maybe some Normal ones, but definitely not Water ones. Not Dratini either.

And Scyther – well, Mark didn't know much about his strength exactly…

He whipped out his Kyogre-colored Pokédex and pointed it at the mantis's Pokéball.

"Scyther – mantis Pokémon. Scyther is a highly dangerous Pokémon due to the sharp scythes it uses for hunting. It has been overhunted ever since the discovery of its Steel-type evolution, Scizor, and their numbers are decreasing rapidly," said the electronic voice. Mark selected the option to view the Pokémon's stats.

His jaw dropped.

_Level 42?_ he thought. _That's insane! The rest of my Pokémon are just somewhere around level 20!_

But level 42 or not, Scyther in general weren't very fond of attacks that didn't involve their scythes in some way or another. However sharp they might be, they would never be able to leave as much as a scratch on a Skarmory's feathers.

Mark stopped in his tracks. He was lucky he hadn't just wandered right into the Gym without thinking it through! The battle would essentially be one on however many Pokémon the Gym Leader might have.

This required some preparation. The first thing that popped into his head was Eevee, but of course, he couldn't evolve him now…

_Or am I just being overprotective again?_

Mark sighed and took out Eevee's Pokéball, sending him out. Somehow, he felt like Eevee looked older, but then again, he was probably just imagining it.

"Vee?" he asked, looking at Mark. His voice was now getting clearer and not as squeaky and baby-like. Mark was certainly not imagining that. Was Eevee… growing up?

"Hey, Eevee…" Mark wondered how to begin.

"Yes?" asked the Pokémon.

"Have you… have you ever thought about evolution?" Mark decided just to get to the point.

"Evolution?" Eevee tilted his head a bit, like he wasn't sure what he meant.

"Yeah, like Charmander evolved and now he's a Charmeleon."

"Oh," Eevee realized, "you mean like growing up?"

"Guess it can be called that," said Mark, shrugging.

"But doesn't that just happen when you're old?" Eevee questioned.

"No," Mark explained, "evolution can happen in many different ways. It's often the equivalent of some part of growing up, because a lot of physical maturing takes place at once during the process of evolution, but it doesn't happen depending on age. Some Pokémon evolve when they have gained a certain amount of battle experience, sometimes evolution is triggered through strong emotions, for some Pokémon going through the compression that happens during a trade causes them to evolve, and some – like you, Eevee – can evolve when exposed to certain materials."

"Will I become a Flareon, then, like mommy was?" the Pokémon asked curiously.

"Well," said Mark, not sure how to say it, "you can become one of five Pokémon, or choose to stay as you are."

"What can I evolve into other than Flareon?" Eevee asked.

"Well, you can become a Vaporeon, Jolteon, Espeon or Umbreon too. Vaporeon is a Water Pokémon that relies on endurance and special attacking power and can dissolve into water… Jolteon focuses on speed and Electric attacks and can fire the spikes on its body at opponents… Flareon is a Fire Pokémon and its strategy is built on physical strength and resistance to elemental attacks… Espeon is adept at using its Psychic powers quickly and effectively… Umbreon centers around toughness and defensive abilities and is a Dark type. And, of course, you can also just be an Eevee."

"I don't know," Eevee answered insecurely. "Will I change, like when Charmander evolved?"

"Change? Of course you will change, into a different Pokémon…"

"No, I mean… inside."

Mark felt a twinge of pain in his stomach. "Hopefully not… if we wait, then… never mind, you're not ready," he just mumbled and recalled Eevee. How could he have forgotten that? If anybody was too young to evolve without changing very much in personality, it was Eevee.

He'd just have to hope the Gym Leader's team didn't consist of many Skarmory.

Mark sighed and walked towards the Gym. The bright sunlight reflecting off the million feathers blinded him. When he came to the half-circle shaped door, he opened it and went inside.

It was pitch-black.

"Um… hello?" he called into the darkness.

"Hello," answered a calm, deep male voice. "A challenger, eh?"

"Yeah," Mark said nervously.

"Then let the light flow…"

Suddenly, vertical rifts of light appeared high above. They widened gradually and the sunshine found its way inside, revealing what was going on; a pale-skinned, bulky man with steel gray, spiky hair and pitch-black sunglasses wearing some kind of a silvery outfit stood on the opposite side of the room near a horizontal row of switches. When the man had assured himself that Mark had seen him, he turned another switch on. Suddenly, Mark was absolutely blinded as a ring of huge, bright projectors on the walls lit up. He winced, covering his eyes with his arms.

The man laughed. "My name is Christopher and I am the Gym Leader of Alumine. This is my Gym, and in my Gym, you play by my rules. I want light, then I'll have light."

Mark nodded.

"Secondly," Christopher continued, "we will use two Pokémon each in this battle."

Mark blindly reached for Charmeleon's ball.

"Go, Steelix!" shouted Christopher.

"Charmeleon!" Mark yelled, throwing the ball into what he presumed was the arena. Peering out of the small rift between his eyelids, he could make out his Fire Pokémon cowering from the light.

"Char…" he growled.

"Steelix, Earthquake!" ordered the Gym Leader. Mark realized what he was doing; he was using attacks that didn't depend on the user seeing the opponent.

"Jump!" Mark ordered desperately as the massive shape of the iron snake raised its tail. Charmeleon did what was even better; he jumped onto Steelix's tail and hung on to it while the iron snake sent ripples around the floor.

"Flamethrower!" Mark blurted out quickly.

"Slam!" Christopher countered.

The shape of Steelix's tail was slammed towards the floor, but Charmeleon jumped off in time and breathed out a long tongue of brightly-colored flames. Steelix roared in pain.

"Iron Tail," said Christopher, seemingly a bit worried. But when the iron snake's tail was lifted upwards, it cast a shadow at Charmeleon, and he aimed carefully before sending a blast of flames straight at Steelix's flat metal head. The massive snake flailed around in pain, roaring, and Charmeleon grabbed the opportunity to attack again with another Flamethrower.

The gigantic shape collapsed with a roar. Mark could make out a flash of red light that dissolved the iron snake.

"Very well…" Christopher grumbled. "Go… Scizor."

Mark was surprised. Either the Gym Leader didn't have a Skarmory at all, or he would rather send out a Pokémon that was much weaker to Fire attacks. Mark knew that Scizor, the evolved form of Scyther, had dark red armor, three spikes sticking out of its small head, two thin, transparent wings that it couldn't fly with, and pincers on its arms. The shadowy shape that Christopher sent out seemed to match that description – except that while Mark couldn't see it very well due to the light, it was certainly not red. It seemed more greenish.

"Double Team!" Christopher commanded hastily.

"Scizor!" hissed the Pokémon, and suddenly there were three of them standing there. Mark had no idea which was the real one. Neither did Charmeleon.

"Flamethrower the one on the left!" Mark shouted worriedly. The lizard spewed out a blast of fire, which melted the Scizor copy upon contact.

"Double Team two more times!" Christopher said harshly. Each of the two that were left split into three, bringing the total up to six. Then all six split too, and eighteen Scizor surrounded Charmeleon.

"Uh…" Mark wasn't sure what he could do now. Charmeleon wouldn't have the energy to melt seventeen copies, especially when they could duplicate themselves again at any point.

"Metal Claw!" Christopher barked. His bug Pokémon all jumped at Charmeleon with their pincers raised as they turned a steel gray color, and grabbed his arms, tail, feet or horn. He roared in pain; Mark knew that only one of them had actually struck, but it had struck hard.

"And now, Slash!"

The Scizor all opened their pincers wide before slashing at the lizard. Charmeleon retaliated by melting another copy, but the rest slashed again.

"Return," Mark said, holding the Pokéball forward. Charmeleon was getting too weak.

He thought about who to send out next. The Scizor copies were still there, so they would be hard to beat whatever he did. But Scizor couldn't fly, and Earthquake would hit anything that wasn't flying…

Suddenly, the door to the Gym opened behind Mark and May stepped inside. She was blinded by the light and raised her hand to shield her eyes, noticed Mark and waved with her other hand, smiling. She leant up to the wall to watch the battle, however she was going to see anything properly.

Mark remembered that he was still battling and reached for Sandshrew's ball, but before he managed to pluck it off his belt, he felt Scyther's ball start to wobble. The mantis burst out in a flash of red light.

"Scyther, what do you think you're doing?" Mark yelled angrily. "This counts as sending you out!"

"That's the point," Scyther growled. "That pathetic life form you are currently facing is a Scizor."

"What do you mean?"

"That my pride as a Scyther is at stake."

Mark remembered the story he had been told when he was little about how Ash Ketchum's Pikachu had battled Lt. Surge's Raichu – and won – for the sake of all unevolved Pikachu out there and showing that evolution wasn't everything. Was this something similar? It could also have something to do with the fact that, at least according to the Pokédex, Scyther had been decreasing in numbers ever since Scizor was discovered.

Mark didn't get the chance to ask. Scyther's shadowed shape was already standing firmly on the ground, surrounded by copies of his evolved form. If he was blinded by the light, he wasn't showing it.

Suddenly, Scyther darted forward towards the first Scizor he saw. His scythe immediately chopped it in half and it dissolved. He did the same with all the others at amazing speed, until finally one turned out to be solid. The scythe didn't put a scratch in the Scizor's metallic armor, but it was knocked backwards. Scyther started slashing more intensely with both of his scythes, the Scizor narrowly blocking them with its pincers. Then suddenly, the green mantis leapt over the armored bug and slashed at its back. Mark couldn't see clearly what happened, but it appeared that Scyther had cut Scizor's wing off as it fell to the ground with a clatter.

The Scizor let out a cry of pain, collapsing, and Christopher, apparently afraid of what this could result in, raised a hand and said: "I give in."

He pressed a button; the projectors were turned off, and Mark realized what was so unusual about the Scizor; it was a moss green color and slightly sparkly. Also known as a Shiny.

Mark stared open-mouthed at it. Shiny Pokémon were incredibly rare. They didn't differ from normal Pokémon in power, but a genetic mutation caused various parts of their bodies to be colored differently from the usual and give off a slight sparkle. Most trainers would die to own one; Mark didn't like them that much, but just the thought of the recognition would still be enough to make him take a lot of risks.

Christopher grinned; he seemed to enjoy the attention. Mark's gaze darted towards May, and instantly knew that she was one of the trainers who would die to have a shiny Pokémon; she wasn't staring at the Scizor in awe, but rather straight into the air, her face red with envy.

Suddenly, Scyther, who had been glaring at the Scizor with a gaze that could kill, started attacking it again, even though the Shiny had already been defeated. He slashed mindlessly, despite knowing that it wasn't hurting Scizor's metallic armor, with an expression of uttermost loathing.

"Scyther – Scyther – what do you think you're doing – you're breaking the Agreement!" Mark cried out in an attempt to catch the mantis's attention, but no avail. Christopher just quickly got out a Pokéball and recalled his Pokémon. Mark did the same, stunned; Scyther kept trying to slash even as he got dissolved into red energy.

"Your badge," said Christopher grudgingly. Mark walked up to him and the Gym Leader dropped a coin similar to the Element Badge into his palm. He muttered some thanks and took the badge, walking to the place where May was standing as she went towards her place on the arena. This coin seemed to be made of steel and had an extremely smooth, shiny surface. Mark turned it around; the back had "Shining Badge" engraved into it.

Just then, Christopher turned the projectors on again to battle May.

"Go, Skarmory!" she commanded, sending out her steel vulture.

"Go, Steelix!" the Gym Leader ordered, apparently having put his massive iron snake into a Pocket Healer while Mark's mind was focused on something else.

"Swift," May said, smirking. Mark knew it was a clever move in the situation; it couldn't possibly miss. Her Skarmory released a flurry of feathers from its body, and indeed all of them shot straight at Steelix as though guided by an invisible force. But the snake's armor was too thick to be harmed by the attack at all; the feathers bounced right off it, and Steelix didn't even seem to notice.

"Iron Tail," said Christopher. His Pokémon swung its tail upwards, knocking the vulture down. May recalled it without words.

"Lapras, do it! Surf!"

She sent out her big, turtle-like Pokémon and it shot a stream of water from its mouth into the air. It formed into a huge wave which crashed towards the Steelix. This it clearly noticed; it roared in pain, flailing around, and finally collapsed onto the floor.

"Return," said Christopher and drew another Pokéball. "Skarmory, win this!"

Apparently, he did have a Skarmory. He had probably just wanted to save it for later or something. His steel vulture was considerably bigger than May's, and circled Lapras like an injured prey that was about to die.

"Skarmory, plan E."

His Skarmory, with a high-pitched cry of "Ska-a-a!", rocketed up towards the wall on one side. It didn't stop, but rather smashed into it. As the walls swayed dangerously, the steel feathers started raining down upon the arena. The trainers automatically stepped back to avoid them, but Lapras couldn't leave the arena and got heavily cut. Skarmory didn't wait for an order and instantly did it again. The battle got more fast-paced, both trainers yelling out commands at the same time, Skarmory smashing the ceiling again and again, and Lapras firing icy beams. Finally, May ended up as the victor.

Christopher was clearly a lot happier to hand her the same badge he had presented to Mark earlier than him. Mark couldn't really blame him; after all, he wouldn't have been too happy either if his Pokémon's wing had been cut off.

Seeing that May was walking towards the door, Mark just went outside, relieved to be in normal light again.

Scyther's behaviour while battling Scizor still gave him the creeps.


	14. The Black Desert

**Chapter 13: The Black Desert**

"Hmmm… yeah, it's definitely shorter…"

May was observing the Ouen Map at the Pokémon Center while Mark was petting Eevee, who was curled up in his arms, half-asleep.

"What is shorter than what?" Mark questioned.

"It's shorter to go through the Black Desert to Scorpio City than around it," May replied.

"Black Desert?" asked Mark doubtfully. "I don't like the sound of that."

"We've got our Pokémon," May just said.

"But May… if the normal route goes around the desert, there's got to be a reason for it, right?" Mark asked, not at all convinced.

"What could possibly happen? We've got strong Pokémon to fend off any wild ones, we've got Water Pokémon who can quench our thirst in the unlikely case of emergency, and it isn't very far anyway…"

Suddenly she added: "You've got a sleeping bag, right? We aren't going to find a hotel in the desert, you know."

"Yeah, of course," Mark answered, immediately afterwards realizing that this had sounded like he was agreeing.

"Come on, we should hurry," May said and marched outside. Mark had no choice but to follow her, wondering whether she had intentionally tricked him into answering the sleeping bag question.

* * *

On they walked, out of the city, into the mountains, higher and higher up. There were a few Pokémon there, but not many, and they were easily taken care of. The sky was clear and the sun shone with blazing intensity, making it rather uncomfortably hot.

"I do _not_ look forward to walking through that desert in this," Mark moaned. May ignored him.

They walked all day with a few stops, entering the sandy, lifeless wasteland known as the Black Desert around six o'clock.

"The 'Black Desert'?" Mark asked, looking blankly over the yellowish-brown dunes.

"It's just a name," said May, shrugging. "Come on."

The sun slowly sank into the horizon as they were on their way through the desert. It quickly got ice cold, and finally they decided to stop for the night. Charmeleon got to sleep outside of his Pokéball due to the tail flame, which made them feel safer.

"What's so black about it?" Mark asked, lying in his sleeping bag and staring into the fire.

"Go to sleep," May muttered.

He took her advice.

* * *

When a lone Murkrow flew over the desert a short while later, he witnessed a most peculiar sight.

It was as if a stream of jet-black ink started seeping out through the dunes, covering the sand. If he had then lowered his flight, as to see what was going on, he might have noticed that the flood was in fact made of thousands and millions of relatively small creatures, black as night.

Their movements were synchronized like those of a school of fish, yet they were so many that to the Murkrow high above, it seemed like a blanket of shadow had spread out over the sand.

Had the Murkrow landed, it would have been his doom.

* * *

Something was creeping up on Mark again. It was not Scyther or Fangcat; it was a new threat, shrouded in darkness. He had gotten used to these dreams the previous night, but there was something eerie about this one that sent a chill going down his spine.

All of a sudden, the dream burst into an eruption of flames. It was so burning hot that Mark found himself awake and sitting upright the next second, facing the answer to his question from earlier.

All around, a crowd of pitch-black scorpion-like Pokémon faced him with their segmented tails raised. Each had two yellow, pupil-less, evil-looking eyes on the front of its head. Two pincers snapped at the end of the foremost set of limbs. And it was so crowded that there was no sight of the sand anywhere except just near where the kids were. The Black Desert was indeed black.

For some reason, May was also awake, staring at the scorpions with the same expression of horror that Mark had. Charmeleon was still asleep, blissfully unaware of it all.

"What are they?" May whispered.

Mark didn't answer; he just reached for the Pokédex clipped to his belt and pointed it at one of the scorpions with a trembling hand.

"Scorplack, scorpion Pokémon," said the Pokédex in an electronically calm voice. "Native only to the Black Desert, they sleep buried in the sand during the day and come out in hordes in the night to hunt. They are actually blind, but have eye-like spots on their heads to frighten enemies. Scientists debate on whether to classify them as Bug/Poison or Poison/Dark."

Mark closed his Pokédex, swallowing. While that was to be expected, the Pokédex had confirmed them as poisonous, and a Dark type, even if debatable, was usually only given to Pokémon that were known to occasionally 'play dirty' – such as by attacking humans for prey.

Well, obviously they weren't surrounding them to congratulate them on being the millionth people to cross the desert. Mark just wondered why they hadn't attacked yet. They were just standing still, staring at them with their fake eyes.

"Charmeleon," he poked his partner, "we have… er, a bit of a problem."

The lizard mumbled and grudgingly opened his eyes. Upon seeing the Scorplack, he jumped to his feet and faced them, growling.

"I think he has a point," May said, standing up and taking four Pokéballs off her necklace. "Butterfree, Skarmory, Pikachu, Larvitar!"

"Sandshrew, Dratini, Scyther, go!" Mark shouted, releasing his Pokémon too.

Then the battle started.

As soon as the Pokémon came out of their Pokéballs, the Scorplack started crawling towards them, trying to sting them. Charmeleon did pretty well frying them before they came too near; Sandshrew had a certain resistance to poison as a Ground-type but Mark ended up recalling him because Earthquake did same as nothing in this sand. Dratini surrounded himself with a Twister, preventing the Scorplack from getting near enough. Scyther was too fast for them, swooping down and cutting their tails off to make them unable to harm the others. Thankfully, Scyther and Charmeleon were too busy to even notice each other.

May's Pokémon were doing better than Mark's. Butterfree fluttered above, sending flurries of toxic spores down to put a crowd of them to sleep at a time, while her Skarmory, being absolutely immune to poison of any kind, dove down to drill its beak into the scorpions. Pikachu aimed bolts of lightning at some of the bigger ones, but Larvitar attempted to blow them away with Sandstorm. Meanwhile, the kids, protected by their Pokémon, hurriedly packed their sleeping bags.

But the Scorplack were too many. Pikachu, Dratini, Butterfree and Larvitar got exhausted after a short while and their trainers recalled them. Scyther, Charmeleon and Skarmory fought valiantly, but Mark could see Charmeleon panting between his Flamethrowers.

Then he got stung.

While Charmeleon was catching his breath, one of the Scorplack swung its tail and hit the lizard's leg. He went stiff, sent a powerful blast of flames at the Scorplack and kept fighting, but clearly sweating and growing weaker by every passing moment.

"Damn you, stupid thing!"

Mark turned around to see May kick a Scorplack away. Her ankle was bleeding and had a slightly purple hue.

"You got stung?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"No, that's ketchup and food coloring," she replied icily.

Mark was distracted by Charmeleon letting out a weak "Chaaar…" as he passed out. He recalled him, turning worriedly back to May as the moon and stars became their only light source. Maybe it was just the bluish-white light, but she seemed pale.

"I… I think… Skarmory could maybe carry us to Scorpio City… he knows Fly…" she said weakly.

Mark nodded, recalling Scyther, as Skarmory, who had heard that, landed. Both kids quickly jumped onto the bird's steely back, and he took off. Mark breathed out a sigh of relief as they ascended, away from the Scorplack.

Then he discovered that May was unconscious.

* * *

It wasn't that long a flight to the borders of Scorpio City. Scorpio Valley was a big valley shaped oddly similar to a scorpion, and the city was located in the tail end. It was pretty small; calling it a city wasn't really appropriate, but it was still called that because it had a Pokémon Gym.

Skarmory was getting exhausted after flying this way with two human kids on his back, and once they reached the city, he let himself glide down into the street and collapsed. Mark shot a quick look at May; she was very pale and completely limp.

He took one of the Pokéballs on her necklace and recalled the fainted bird, left alone with an unconscious girl on a street in the middle of the night.

"Help!" he shouted into the darkness. "Can somebody help me?"

But nobody answered.

He looked desperately around; a deep purple-painted building stood nearby, with the letters GYM on the front of it. The street lamps lit up an empty main road; all the houses were quiet.

He turned back to May and was jumped when he saw a young man wearing a black cape kneeling down beside her, touching her forehead.

"Scorplack," the man muttered and checked her pulse.

He looked quickly up at Mark, his shoulder-length silver hair flashing back.

"Where did you come from?" Mark asked, puzzled at his sudden appearance. The man ignored his question and instead introduced himself in a fast but very clear, soft voice:

"My name is Mitch; I am the leader of the official Pokémon Gym of Scorpio City and an expert on poisons. Can you tell me how long has it been since she was stung?"

"Maybe ten, fifteen minutes," Mark answered. "Why?"

Mitch ignored his question again. "How long did it take for her to pass out?"

"Not long, one or two minutes at the most, why?"

Mitch's big, shiny, gray eyes observed him for a second; Mark got an uncomfortable feeling like he was being X-rayed.

"Then you should pray for her life."

Mitch picked up the unconscious girl and ran swiftly towards the purple-colored building.

It took a bit of time for his last words to sink in, but then Mark hurried after him.

* * *

He entered the Gym, panting. It split into three corridors; the left one had a sign on the wall saying TO THE BATTLE ARENA. The middle one ended in a door saying DO NOT ENTER. The right one led to another door, which was open. Mark carefully stepped through it.

The room he entered looked like an ordinary living room, with a few dark brown leather couches, a coffee table and a carpet with a navy and gold pattern on the floor. May was lying on the big sofa, but he didn't see Mitch anywhere.

_Speak of the devil,_ Mark thought as the young man from earlier stepped through the door behind him, not seeming surprised to see Mark there. Mark was going to apologize for walking inside like that, but Mitch just walked up to May and injected something into her arm.

Then he sat down in another couch and offered Mark a seat beside him. Hesitating, Mark sat down.

"Scorplack's poison is very interesting," said Mitch out of the blue, not looking at Mark, but rather straight into the air. "When it gets into your blood stream, it somehow slows down all cells it reaches. The longer it is in the body, the more everything slows down. Then finally, it all stops – unless the person has gotten the antidote in time. The antidote slows down the effect of the poison, so the timing is everything. If the poison kills before the antidote has stopped it, the victim dies. If the antidote stops it too late, the victim will live, but never wake up. Otherwise, the victim will heal completely."

"Is she going to die?" Mark asked quietly.

"Maybe," said Mitch slowly, still looking into the air rather than into Mark's eyes.

"How are the odds?"

"Bad," said Mitch simply. "If she fainted in one or two minutes, it must have been a strong Scorplack. Ten or twenty percent, I guess."

"That's awfully little…" Mark said with a horrible knot in his stomach.

"Odds are meaningless," said Mitch calmly. "Imagine you're holding a hundred-faced die. I walk up to you and say, 'Give me ten thousand Pokédollars, throw the die and if you get hundred, I'll pay you back a million'. You'd never take the offer. What are the odds you'll get exactly hundred? It's very unlikely that you'd be achieving anything except losing ten thousand Pokédollars. And as we all know, it's just as unlikely that you'll get ninety-nine, or ninety-eight. In fact, the odds for each side are so small that you'd never bet on one of them. Still, you can somehow throw it, and be positive that as unlikely as it is, you will get one of them. We could repeat it with a die that has a thousand faces, or a million. What are the odds that a mass of carbon can stand up and walk of its own accord? Almost none, yet you see the proof that it happened all around you. Do not think about odds. Odds are an illusion."

Mark had never thought about it that way. He couldn't think of an answer, so he said nothing. Neither did Mitch; he just kept staring at nothing.

"Does it hurt to have that poison in your body?" Mark suddenly asked.

"Not really," Mitch said, still like he was speaking to the air. "It's not comfortable, but doesn't exactly hurt."

"So, it's a painless thing to die from?"

Mitch smiled faintly. "Those who know that are all dead, I'm afraid."

"How do you know what having the poison in your body feels like, then?" Mark questioned.

Mitch nodded slowly. "I was just a kid, having just gotten my starter, a Venonat. We went into the desert, I stayed there for a bit too long and ran into one Scorplack that was a bit early, didn't know it was dangerous and therefore didn't watch out. I got stung, I caught it, and I fainted while I was walking back to Scorpio City."

"But you were alone, weren't you?" asked Mark, puzzled. "Who saved you?"

Mitch took his time answering this question; he peered at the starlit sky out of a window in the ceiling for a while, still with that faint smile on his lips.

"Nobody," he finally answered. "I should be dead."

Mark decided not to ask more about this.

"When will we know what will happen to her?"

Mitch stood up. "I left a sample of her blood in the research room. It should be ready now; wait here while I go to see the results. But you might find out before me. If she moves, she's getting better. If she stops breathing, she's dead."

And he left Mark alone with May.

"Oh, please," he muttered, "not this! Why can't I have a normal journey without a Gym Leader giving me Mew or a madman threatening to kill me or somebody dying or deranged Pokémon or stupid nightmares?"

"It must be your fate to have difficulties," said a soft voice inside his head. He jerked his head upwards to find Mew floating there. The pink creature's eyes were filled with sadness.

"Mew! Just who I needed! Can't you heal her?"

"No," answered the Legendary Pokémon. "Scorplack's affiliation with the element of darkness prevents psychic powers from affecting anything having to do with them."

"But if she dies, you can just resurrect her, can't you?" Mark questioned.

"She would merely die again, as the poison remains in her blood," said Mew.

"Oh. Why are you following me?" Mark mumbled.

"I do not follow one person," Mew said calmly. "I come when I feel that I should."

"Really?" asked Mark dully.

"And now I feel I should leave," said Mew before disappearing in a flash of purple.

There was a reason for that feeling, at least; Mitch entered just a second later.

"Good news," he said. "She will most likely make it. She got the antidote in time. How do you know her, anyway?"

"Eh, we ended up going through the desert together, goodness knows how… it was her idea," he quickly added.

"You didn't get stung at all?" Mitch questioned.

"No, my Pokémon held them back…"

He suddenly realized what he had forgotten. His face went pale.

"Charmeleon! He also got stung! Quick, give him some antidote…"

Mark took out the Pokéball and sent out his unconscious lizard on the floor. Mitch bent down and examined him, then injected some of the antidote into his arm.

"Will he be okay?" Mark asked worriedly.

"Pokémon are stronger than many people give them credit for," said Mitch with a smile. "One sting from a Scorplack won't kill any decent Pokémon. Humans, however…"

He trailed off, but then started again.

"Amazing, isn't it? Pokémon are superior to us, but we're the ones who 'own' them. And there's a reason for it. Pokémon, while quite matching our intelligence, lack one thing. It is creativity. On their own, Pokémon only use battling techniques passed down generation by generation. Taking two things we know and figuring out that we can make something new out of them, that is our specialty, and that is exactly what they can't do. This is why they seek our company in the first place. We can teach them things that seem obvious to us, but their brains have never been built to understand. Even Alakazam, with an IQ of 5000, will battle far better with a human's aid. We need each other…"

For a moment Mitch seemed to be in deep thought. Then he absent-mindedly picked Charmeleon up and placed him on the coffee table.

"Well, now we just have to wait. Want a drink?"


	15. Thief and Victim

**Chapter 14: Thief and Victim**

Mark woke up feeling very refreshed. He scanned through his memory, but didn't remember dreaming anything at all. Well, that was relieving. The 'nightmare phase' seemed to be over.

"Had a good rest?"

He jerked his head upwards to find Mitch still sitting in the couch. Mark looked sleepily out of the window; judging from the bright sunshine, he had fallen asleep sometime in the night, despite having had some coke to keep him awake. Charmeleon stood on the coffee table, seemingly healthy, and while May was lying motionless on the sofa, her chest was rising and falling as it should.

"Yeah, pretty good," Mark said, stretching.

"Any… dreams?" asked Mitch, suddenly looking into Mark's eyes. The question had to be a coincidence, but the way Mitch looked at Mark gave it some more of a meaning.

"No, not that I remember," he mumbled, turning away.

"Good…" Mitch said softly, also turning to look out of the window. Nobody said anything for a long time. Then finally, May's eyes opened.

She blinked a few times and sat up. "What place is this?" she asked confusedly, looking around.

"You are in the Scorpio City Gym," said Mitch. "The poison in your bloodstream has been neutralized, and your body will handle cleaning it up."

"Oh." She paused, observing Mitch for a second. Then she turned to Mark.

"What happened after we flew away on Skarmory?"

"Well," Mark began, taking a deep breath, "we flew over here, Skarmory crashed out of exhaustion, I recalled him for you and then Mitch, the Gym Leader, appeared out of nowhere and gave you a shot with some antidote."

"Oh," May replied. After a few seconds, she turned back to Mitch. "Thanks."

"It's my job," said Mitch and smiled that faint smile again.

"What time is it?" asked May, turning towards the window. Suddenly, she froze, and then pulled Mark's sleeve.

"Quilava!" she hissed, before suddenly dashing out through the door. Mark shot an apologetic glance at Mitch and then followed her.

* * *

Taylor held his Blaziken Pokédex in his right hand, observing the Ouen map on the screen. Absent-mindedly, he sat down on a bench.

He had teleported to Scorpio City the day before and taken on the Gym Leader. His brother, Rick, had lent him the prototype Abratwo to get there. Taylor would have loved to keep it – after all, it had been very impressive – but Rick had always been obsessed with only giving him the best of the best. That was sometimes nice, but often irritating because Taylor wasn't as much of a perfectionist as his brother. He just wanted something decent, and would rather not wait ages to get something absolutely flawless.

Then again, it didn't matter now. He had just received the ultimate replacement.

Taylor broke into a grin as he plucked his three Pokéballs off his Pokéball belt and placed them beside him. He picked up one of the two Clone Balls, looking at it. Clones were strong. His first clone, Pikatwo, contained in his other Clone Ball, had never lost a battle.

Taylor sighed, shooting a quick glance at the normal Pokéball. He couldn't help wondering if he should really have tricked that Quilava out of the girl. He had never even had the need to send it out. Which he was deep down thankful for, because he wasn't sure Quilava would like him too much. After all, he had broken the Agreement by taking a Pokémon from its trainer without consulting it first – admittedly the girl hadn't had anything against that either, but he didn't want to risk getting scorched by Quilava's Ember.

Ah, well, now he had two clones. Maybe he'd never have to send it out of its ball.

He smiled at the Clone Ball and attached it back to his belt, focusing on the Ouen map again.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Mark yelled while trying to catch up with May.

"Rick's brother!" she hissed. "The guy with my Quilava! Taylor, you said he was called."

"What about him?" asked Mark confusedly.

"I saw him, of course," said May like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He sat down at that bench over there."

She pointed. At the end of the street they were running along, a boy with long, red hair was sitting on a bench, bent over something in his hands.

"What are you going to do?" Mark asked, puzzled, as May crouched down behind some bushes near the sidewalk.

"I'm going to get Quilava back, of course."

Mark watched in disbelief as she crawled towards the bench like a predator to its prey. Very slowly, she extended her hand, grabbed one of the Pokéballs beside the boy and then quickly withdrew it. Mark saw her crawling back towards him.

"Whoa," he said blankly. "You just went and stole it?"

"It's not stealing if she's mine," she said coldly.

"Well, technically," Mark commented, "you traded her away."

"But he tricked me into it," she argued. "And Quilava never agreed."

"You weren't exactly thinking about that when you traded, were you?"

May's eyes flashed. "She's my Quilava! Professor Elm gave her to me! And I never agreed to trade her for some lousy level five lizard!"

Mark felt like he had just received an Ice Punch, but just glared at her and breathed very fast.

"Well, aren't we going to battle Mitch?" May said, still in an angry voice. "Don't know about you, but I'm going to get myself some Antidotes in case my Pokémon get poisoned."

Mark reluctantly followed her as she started walking firmly towards the Pokémon Market across the street.

* * *

Taylor folded his Pokédex back together and clipped it to his belt, looking to his side. He started when he saw only his two Clone Balls there. He picked them up and attached them to his belt as he examined the sidewalk to see if his Pokéball was there. Seeing no traces of it, he looked up. Just a short distance away, he saw a familiar girl and a boy he had never seen before with her.

He didn't know exactly what had happened, but immediately got a pretty good idea of it. He watched the two enter the Pokémon Market, and an idea formed in his head.

He grabbed his new Pokémon's Clone Ball and smirked.

* * *

Mark and May, after stocking up on things at the market, walked outside to be greeted by a well-known figure: one of the Officer Jennies. She wore a police uniform, had long, teal hair, and folded her arms strictly. Beside her, slightly behind, stood Taylor.

"This boy tells me you stole one of his Pokéballs," she said accusingly.

May turned beet red. Then suddenly she roared "THAT QUILAVA IS MINE!" as she jumped at Taylor in what was clearly an attempt to at least punch him if not bite him too. Officer Jenny grabbed her jacket and held her back.

"Quite the temper you've got," she said shortly.

May tried to break loose, but Officer Jenny had a firm grip on her. She glared murderously at Taylor.

"Also," the policewoman added thoughtfully, turning to Taylor, "Quilava? Didn't you say it was a Charmeleon?"

"Yeah," said Taylor, slightly nervously. Mark wondered why he hadn't just said it was a Quilava; this way his story sounded a lot more suspicious.

"Come with me, guys," said Officer Jenny, walking towards the police station next door and dragging Mark and May with her. Mark felt a strong burst of anger flare up in his heart; what had he done?

"I didn't do anything!" he shouted.

"Congratulations, you've just used the oldest excuse known to mankind," said the officer sarcastically as they entered.

Inside, it was rather dark. A desk with a lit lamp on it was on the other end of the room, covered in papers. Mark would've looked around better, but Officer Jenny pushed him inside. Then she picked up a small device from the desk.

"Your trainer license?"

"Trainer license?" Mark was stunned – of course he should know that a trainer had to get a trainer license. What had he been thinking when he set off? He had been training illegally for a while, and magically gotten away with it. One of the first thoughts that shot into his head was that the Pokémon League's trainer identification system had to be very flawed, since he hadn't even been making an effort to hide it.

"I… I don't have one," he stammered.

"No license?" Jenny raised her eyebrows. "Your eye, please," she said to Mark. He stepped up to her and she held the tool she had picked up earlier up to his eye to scan his iris.

"Mmmh," she said. "Never done anything before, though… so apparently you didn't get it removed… but that doesn't change that you're still training without a license. You'll get away with a warning this time, but I suggest you go get a license before you get in more trouble – provided, of course, that you did not steal the boy's Pokémon."

Officer Jenny turned to May, who was holding forward a trainer card. "Valid," said Jenny after surveying it for a few seconds. "May I have your eye, please?"

May allowed her eye to be scanned too, although she clearly hated it. A loud beep was heard.

"You, on the other hand…" said Officer Jenny slowly, "you're on record."

"Surprise," May sneered sarcastically. Mark's heart suddenly realized it had some catching up to do and started pumping like crazy.

"Hmm… 'assaulting a police officer'… 'refusing to cooperate with the police'… 'breaking and entering'…" Officer Jenny read from the device. Mark felt sick.

The policewoman laid the tool back on the desk. "When was that?"

"You," said May with disgust, "you think a nine-year-old can't have anything to say that you don't know. You think that a nine-year-old's accusations must be based on personal grudges. You think little girls with bad tempers can't possibly be right. Something is stolen from a girl and she knows who did it, but you think her knowledge sounds too absurd and claim that the real thief will never be found. She goes on her own and takes again what is hers, and all you do is putting it on some bloody record as 'breaking and entering'."

She jerked this all out very fast, and Mark didn't really get the whole thing, but from how it looked, somebody had stolen something from May when she was nine, she knew who it was but the police didn't believe her and just forgot about it, so she took matters into her own hands, broke in and stole what had been stolen from her again. The question was mainly whether the thing that had been 'stolen' from her had been about as 'stolen' as Quilava.

"Interesting," said Officer Jenny simply. "Tell me… did you steal the boy's Charmeleon?"

"No," May spat.

"Well, we'll see about that," the policewoman said. "Your Pokémon, please."

May handed her Pokéballs to Officer Jenny.

"You too," Jenny insisted, turning to Mark. He gave his Pokéballs to her too. She took a Pokédex from her belt and scanned all the Pokéballs, picking out two of them afterwards.

"Okay, this one contains a Quilava and this one contains a Charmeleon. Which of them was stolen?"

"Charmeleon," Taylor said firmly.

May opened her mouth, but Officer Jenny stopped her before she said anything.

"Of course, to make sure we're not making a terrible mistake here, we'll do a check of original trainers and ID numbers on them both."

Mark suddenly realized what Taylor was up to saying that Charmeleon had been stolen – while a simple ID check on Quilava would prove her as May's, Charmeleon had originally been given to Taylor and never been registered as traded. Unofficial trades were essentially illegal, partly because that way there was no way to prove the change of trainers, as the trade would never be on official records.

"No!" he blurted out.

"No? Why not? You obviously have something to hide," said Officer Jenny suspiciously. She pressed a button on the Pokédex.

"Quilava is registered to you, it seems," said Officer Jenny to May, giving her the Pokéballs back. "But Charmeleon…" Jenny scanned the Pokéball and read off the Pokédex.

"It's registered to the boy who reported the theft, Taylor."

Mark looked at May. She was staring expressionlessly at him, and clearly understood who Charmeleon was now.

Officer Jenny put Charmeleon's Pokéball on the desk.

* * *

"You can have it in a minute," Jenny said to Taylor. "But first, I need to record that…"

Taylor couldn't help feeling slightly guilty as she said that. If he was getting that Charmeleon, which the boy had thankfully evolved, however he originally got it, he didn't want to get him into any trouble, because the boy certainly hadn't done anything to him.

But luckily, he was prepared for that.

_Speed her up a little bit,_ he thought, looking out of the window where his new Pokémon was waiting for orders, _Mewtwo²._

* * *

Suddenly, Officer Jenny stopped in her tracks. Her eyes went all funny, reminding Mark somewhat of (he shivered a bit) Rick's Legendary clones.

"Here," she said, taking the Pokéball off the table. Mark stared miserably at it as she handed it to Taylor.

"Please," he pleaded, "you're making a mistake! That boy, Taylor, he…"

But Jenny ignored him completely. She then almost mechanically shoved Mark and May outside, closing the door. There was nothing more he could do.

They walked silently back towards the Gym. May had taken a funny interest in her fingernails as she held them close to her face and examined them. Mark just felt horrible.

"Taylor has Charmeleon," he muttered miserably, not exactly expecting an answer.

"No," said May after a moment of silence. "He has Quilava. I switched the Pokéballs on the desk." She opened her palm to reveal a minimized Pokéball she appeared to have been clutching since she took it.

"You going to take him back or something?" Mark said in a horribly shaky voice.

"No," she answered, handing the Pokéball to him while staring in the other direction. "I… threw him away… he's not mine…"

Mark took the Pokéball, covered in sweat from May's hand, and attached it back to his own belt. He knew both of them were thinking about the same thing: Officer Jenny's eyes.


	16. Darkness and Poison

**Chapter 15: Darkness and Poison**

When the two kids reached the Scorpio City Gym again, it was locked. Gyms were only supposed to be locked when the Leader was away or if some kind of a task was to be completed to collect the key, meaning that Mitch had apparently left while they were at the police station.

"Why did he just leave?" May hissed, clearly still upset about the whole encounter with Taylor and Officer Jenny.

"Really, May, nothing says he can't leave whenever he wants," Mark said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I'm going to find him," she said determinedly. "I'm not going to wait for him for ages."

"Fine," said Mark, shrugging. "You'll just bring him back here, right? Then I don't need to come." He was getting slightly skeptical about hanging around with her too much, which was why he would rather wait.

"Whatever," said May, turning around and storming downtown.

Mark looked after her, not sure what he would do while she was finding Mitch. He didn't have to wonder for long.

"Fancy a battle?"

He quickly turned around to find a very creepy-looking boy, most likely around thirteen or fourteen. He was wrapped in a wavy, pitch-black cloak, matching his long black hair. Contrasting with that, his face was rather pale.

"So?" asked the boy with a smile. Mark assumed from his expression that he was just a normal Pokémon trainer, even if he dressed funnily.

"Yeah, sure," Mark said, shrugging. "It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"Great," the boy purred. "Let's make it a one-on-one. I want to test out the Pokémon I just caught."

He picked a Pokéball from somewhere under his cloak. Mark noticed that it was a black and yellow Ultra Ball; the most powerful ball apart from Master Balls. The boy held it in his hand and looked affectionately at it as if in a trance.

"Challenger sends out first except for Gym battles," Mark pointed out.

"Sure," said the boy, looking back at him. "Precious, I choose you!"

He hurled the ball forward. Mark expected something big, high-leveled and ferocious – after all, the boy had wasted an Ultra Ball on it – but he was surprised to see that the red orb of energy started taking shape into something tiny. He watched curiously as it faded to reveal an extremely cute, fluffy black kitten.

The boy looked at it, grinning from ear to ear with an expression of fascination. "Isn't it lovely?" he asked.

"Mewww," the kitten meowed, and then added like in a cough, "tark!"

The Pokémon looked adorably at Mark with its big, yellow eyes. He couldn't help smiling. It was probably that boy's favorite Pokémon, since he had wasted an Ultra Ball to catch it, named it 'Precious' and was now looking at it with the confidence of somebody whose Magikarp had just evolved.

"Go, umm…" Mark thought for a second. Sandshrew needed some training, and he couldn't help not feeling like hurting 'Precious' too much. "Err, Sandshrew."

As the yellow armadillo materialized a short distance from the kitten, the boy grinned even more.

"Never seen Mutark before, I take it?" he asked.

"No," said Mark, confused.

"Well, that was to be expected… Mutark is rare…" the boy muttered, more to himself than Mark. Then his grin still widened.

"Great. Then you'll be surprised."

Mark didn't like the way he said that, but it was too late now.

"Um, Sandshrew, try a Scratch." He considered using Earthquake, but in case the boy was just overestimating Mutark's strength, he didn't want to hurt it too much.

Sandshrew moved in to scratch the kitten. It didn't move or make any attempts to dodge or retaliate; neither did its trainer command it to. It just let out a meow when Sandshrew's sharp claws sliced up the skin on its side, and as the armadillo backed away, the kitten painfully twisted its body around and started licking the scratches miserably. For a second, Mark felt sorry for it. Then he watched in amazement as it seemed to stiffen up; its eyes took an eerie, red glow, and it grew to double its original size in a few seconds. It wasn't as cute anymore; the noticeably lengthened claws and fangs probably did it.

Sandshrew was clearly startled too, as he curled up into a tight ball. The Mutark jumped at him and started rolling him around like a ball of yarn.

Then the incredible happened. The scaled sphere started emitting a bright white glow. Mutark backed away in surprise as the ball grew and got spiky. The glow faded, and the newly evolved pangolin-like Pokémon uncurled. Sandslash attempted with little success to see the brown, pointed scales on his back that formed into his spikes.

"Oh, I never asked you if you wanted to evolve!" Mark realized suddenly.

"I don't mind," Sandslash replied. "I quite like this form, actually…" he added thoughtfully, examining his new, much more powerful claws.

And he did something that Mark had never thought he'd see him doing: he faced the Mutark and got his claws ready in attacking position.

"Interesting…" the creepy trainer said softly.

Precious, however, didn't like this turn of events, and started hissing at Sandslash. He retaliated by slashing the Mutark with his huge claws. For a moment, the cat Pokémon backed away and licked the cuts slightly once at a safe distance; then it stiffened again and grew, and now reminded Mark more of a black Fangcat than the little kitten it had been just a minute ago.

Mark saw that obviously, this change had something to do with Mutark licking its wounds.

"Sandslash, try…" he began, but was cut short:

"Precious, Bite," the boy ordered. The Mutark leapt with amazing agility straight towards Sandslash's white underbelly, managed to push him onto his back and as he was sprawled helplessly on the ground, the cat Pokémon sank its fangs into his body. He screeched in pain.

"I forfeit," said Mark quickly, recalling Sandslash to the Pokéball in a beam of red light.

"Nice Pokémon," said a familiar voice. Mark turned around to see that May had returned.

"Did you find Mitch?" he asked.

"Yeah, he was just getting himself something to eat," she said, blushing slightly. "I was in a bad mood earlier…"

Mark turned back to Precious and the boy. The Mutark was now starting to shrink rapidly, back to the cute kitten that it was at the beginning of the battle.

"I like that Pokémon," May said, directing her words at the Mutark's trainer, who was now recalling it. "What is it called?"

"Mutark," the boy replied. "It's a favorite of mine too."

"Native to Ouen, I assume?" May asked.

"Yeah," said the boy. "And really rare too," he added with a hint of pride. "The only way to lure it out of hiding is to have a Dark Pokémon."

"You've got more Dark types?" May asked, clearly very interested.

"Yep," the boy said proudly. "They're my specialty. I only train Dark Pokémon."

_That explains the cape,_ Mark thought.

"Will a Tyranitar work?" May questioned.

"Should do," said the trainer.

"Thanks. I'm May; you?" she asked.

"Victor," said the boy, smiling. "I'm glad I could help."

Mark couldn't help thinking in horror to the moment he'd have to battle May with one of those things. With his luck, his only Pokémon left would probably be Scyther or something.

"Hey, let's go to the Gym, shall we?" May said to Mark.

Mark shrugged and followed her towards the Gym.

"Bye," May called to Victor. "Can I battle Mitch first?" she then asked Mark.

"Whatever," he just replied. "Oh – I need to get Sandslash to a Pokémon Center." He looked anxiously in the direction of the Pokémon Center a short distance away.

"You don't mind me starting my battle while you're there, do you?" May just asked.

"No," Mark answered. "See you in a minute, then."

They parted, and Mark ran to the Pokémon Center. It was smaller than those of Cleanwater and Alumine; the interior was also rather simple, with a crimson tiled floor and two benches along the walls. A few people sat there; he noticed the worried expressions on two young girls' faces. They had probably had a nasty encounter with some Scorplack.

He went straight to the desk and handed Sandslash's Pokéball to Nurse Joy. She bowed without words and went into the back room to examine him. It wasn't long until she returned.

"I'll have to keep him for the rest of today," she explained. "But don't worry; he will be fine."

"Thanks," Mark muttered. Now he didn't have a Ground Pokémon to use versus Mitch, but he would at least get to watch May's battle first and see what Pokémon Mitch used, which would somewhat make up for it.

He wandered into the Gym and took the left corridor, the one with the sign that said TO THE BATTLE ARENA. He turned to the right and entered a large room which was the battle arena. May, who was at his end, was in a sticky situation, to say the least.

Her yellow rodent was tangled in a net of silky, white thread. A huge, orange, spider-like Pokémon with black markings and six legs striped in vibrant yellow and violet clicked its pincers a small distance away, watching the helpless Pikachu in the web.

"Ariados, Poison Sting," said Mitch calmly.

"Thunderbolt!" May hissed. Pikachu started charging voltage in his cheeks as Mitch's spider Pokémon leapt into the air, turned its abdomen towards Pikachu and fired a small dart from the stinger on its backside. It hit the mouse Pokémon, and he let off a bolt of lightning in retaliation. Ariados ran to the side with surprising agility, dodging it.

May looked at Pikachu. His cheeks were sparkling weakly.

"Poisoned," she muttered and plucked a Pokéball from her necklace. "Pikachu, return."

She paused, seemingly in doubt. Finally, she took one of the Pokéballs and maximized it.

"Go, Larvitar!"

The small green dinosaur May had caught at the Lake of Purity materialized as she threw the ball into the arena. Larvitar looked determinedly at the spider, muttering his name.

"Rock Slide!" May shouted, clenching her fist. The little dinosaur's horn glowed bright white, and then rocks started firing from it into the air. They levitated there for a second.

"Larvii!" The rocks pummeled down towards Ariados and crushed the spider under them.

"Return, Ariados," Mitch said expressionlessly, picking a new Pokéball from his belt. "Venomoth, you have my trust."

He hurled forward a Pokéball, which exploded into a flash of red light that formed into a lavender moth-like creature with big, shiny blue eyes on its spiked head.

"Larvitar, another Rock Slide," May said icily. Her Pokémon obeyed, firing another array of rocks into the air and hurling them at the moth. It narrowly avoided them.

"Sleep Powder," said Mitch slowly.

"No!" May exclaimed as the Venomoth flapped its wings eagerly, releasing a cloud of golden dust. Larvitar's eyelids started dropping as the powder engulfed him.

"Don't fall asleep!" May hissed through gritted teeth. Larvitar's eyes snapped open, but dropped again before he lolled to the side, fast asleep.

"Darn it," May said loudly, kicking the air.

"Venomoth, Psybeam," said Mitch.

Venomoth's eyes glowed as the Pokémon fired a multicolored beam of energy towards the little dinosaur. Being asleep, he just rolled slightly to the side.

"Now, Larvitar, just WAKE UP!" May hissed, but her Pokémon just lay there and slept.

"Another Psybeam," Mitch ordered, and his moth Pokémon's eyes took a glow again before firing another beam at Larvitar.

"Return," May muttered, recalling her sleeping Pokémon and taking another Pokéball from her necklace. "Go, Skarmory."

Mitch nodded with a faint smile. "You know what you're doing."

"Damn right," she replied, giving Venomoth a glare. "Skarmory, Drill Peck it into oblivion!"

The steel vulture gave a metallic cry in response, took off and darted towards the moth Pokémon, spinning at high speed. As he hit the Venomoth, it was thrown into the wall, but still with plenty of energy left.

"Sleep Powder," Mitch said. The moth released a cloud of golden powder again.

"Whirlwind," May spat. Skarmory started flapping his wings at high speed, producing a gust of strong wind which blew the powder back at Venomoth. The moth, having no eyelids, simply got a strange dazed look in its eyes as its wings flapped slower and slower. Finally, it started falling.

"And now, Drill Peck it while it's defenseless," May ordered. Her Skarmory dove down and nailed the sleeping moth Pokémon against the wall with his beak.

"Return," Mitch said slowly, recalling his Venomoth. "Beedrill, I choose you."

Out of the ball he threw came a bee-like Pokémon with two cone-shaped stingers on its forearms. It tilted its head, staring at Skarmory with red, compound eyes.

"Drill Peck," said May, smirking.

"Agility," Mitch countered. As Skarmory dove down to attack Beedrill, it zoomed out of the way. It then started circling the arena at amazing speed that the metallic bird could never keep up with.

"All right then…" May said thoughtfully, "try flying up somewhere in the middle of the arena."

Skarmory swooped upwards, and hovered there high above the bee Pokémon.

"And now…"

"Beedrill, Fury Attack."

"SWIFT!"

As Beedrill started buzzing up towards Skarmory, he released a flurry of metallic feathers that bombarded the bee on the way up. It was thrown downwards, being very light and delicate, and got pinned down by feathers.

"Beedrill, return," said Mitch as May also recalled her Skarmory. Handing May a small object, he turned to Mark.

"Your turn."


	17. The Third Badge

**Chapter 16: The Third Badge**

Mark walked nervously forward as May pocketed her badge and stepped out of the way.

"This battle will be a three on three," Mitch said calmly, inserting his Pokéballs into a Pocket Healer. Mark noticed that Mitch had a fourth Pokéball at his belt, too. "No healing items of any sort may be used on a Pokémon while the battle is going on. A recalled Pokémon counts as a fainted Pokémon."

Mark nodded.

"Very well," said Mitch. "Let us begin."

He took a ball and threw it. The light from the sphere materialized into the yellow bee that Mitch had used earlier.

"I choose…" Mark's hand fiddled with his Pokéballs. Charmeleon would definitely be the best choice, but after all, Mitch had a Pokémon that Mark hadn't seen yet, which might be powerful. The best trainers always said that you should leave your strongest Pokémon until last – provided that you know it will still be the strongest then.

Mark paused. Mitch's Pokémon had all been Bug/Poison types; this meant that unless it was just a freaky coincidence, he probably only trained Pokémon that had both types.

He took out a Pokéball. Beedrill weren't the strongest Pokémon around, and Eevee could probably do with a bit more battling experience.

"Eevee, you can do this!"

Mitch nodded as the small furred creature came out of the ball. "Interesting," he simply said.

"Eevee, try a Quick Attack!" Mark said determinedly, hoping that Eevee could bring himself to attack the Beedrill. He did; he hesitated for a bit of a second, but then leapt into the air and tackled the bee Pokémon at high speed. It was knocked backwards, but retaliated by swooping down and jabbing Eevee with the stingers on its forelegs. He staggered backwards, then blinked and faced Beedrill again with a determined "Vi!" His battling instincts were clearly starting to show.

"Twineedle," said Mitch simply, and Beedrill dove down again, its foreleg stingers raised. Eevee seemed to freeze for a moment, but then jumped out of the way, narrowly dodging it. Beedrill swooped upwards again to avoid getting hit.

"Eevee, use… um, maybe Tail Whip?" Mark suggested, realizing immediately afterwards that he had forgotten to sound like he knew what he was doing. Eevee didn't appear to mind; he crouched down low with his tail in the air, and started wagging it back and forward. While Beedrill's glossy red compound eyes watched Eevee's tail tip, he jumped up and tackled the bee again in mid-air.

"Poison Sting," Mitch commanded, just as Beedrill was thrown backwards. The bee instantly obeyed, lunging at Eevee as he landed on the Gym floor and stinging him with its right foreleg. He shuddered, but countered by kicking some sand that seemed to materialize under his feet into the bee Pokémon's eyes. It didn't appear to be much more than a distraction, though; a creature without eyelids had to be designed not to be bothered by sand in the eyes.

"Veeee," Eevee moaned with a dazed look in his eyes. Mark realized that the Beedrill's poison was starting to affect him.

"Don't give up, just get one more hit in with Quick Attack," he said desperately. Eevee used his last strength to leap up and hit the bee once again. It was thrown into the wall, where it fell down, unconscious.

"Good job, Eevee!" Mark cheered, recalling his weak but proud Pokémon. "What's next?"

With a faint smile, Mitch took out another Pokéball. He threw it without words into the middle of the arena, where it released his Venomoth. It flapped its wings slowly, watching Mark with its creepy, staring eyes.

He thought about what to send out. He still wanted to save Charmeleon for the last. The best trainers never recommended training a Pokémon to become much stronger than the rest of the team, so he would rather not use Scyther. That left Gyarados. He hadn't gotten any training in the desert anyway, so he was a few levels behind.

"Go, Gyarados!" Mark announced, throwing the Pokéball towards the pool on the left side of the arena. The sea monster materialized from the red light, apparently not feeling up for his normal roar since he just growled slightly.

"Stun Spore, Venomoth," Mitch said. The moth flew over Gyarados and started flapping its wings, releasing a cloud of golden spores.

"Dive, quickly!" Mark blurted out. Gyarados disappeared beneath the surface of the water, and was not affected by the powder.

"Psybeam, Venomoth," Mitch said as Gyarados came up again. His Pokémon fired a rainbow-colored beam of psychic energy into the monster's face. He retaliated by grabbing the moth in his mouth with a quick movement.

"Psychic and then Stun Spore," Mitch ordered his Pokémon. Venomoth, still locked between Gyarados's jaws, glowed bright blue and as the eerie aura engulfed Gyarados, he was forced to open his mouth and release the captive. As soon as Venomoth was free, it flapped its wings rapidly to send another flurry of sparkling dust at the sea monster. Some of it escaped in through his nostrils, and his long segmented body immediately stiffened, allowing more of the paralyzing powder to enter his bloodstream as he inhaled it.

"Gyarados, do something!" Mark cried desperately, having no idea what to do. With difficulty, the immobile monster closed his eyes and Mark saw him starting to get grayer.

"Is that…" he gasped, just as Gyarados's eyes snapped open and fired the same type of a bright red beam as he had used on Suicune. This time, an even more amazing effect of it was revealed; Venomoth fluttered out of the way, but the beam followed on its own accord and blasted the purple moth Pokémon across the arena. On the way, ice seemed to start layering around its wings, and it fell to the ground with a clatter, clearly frozen.

"Interesting…" Mitch muttered. "Very… very interesting."

The Pokéball's beam zapped Venomoth into the ball again. Mark looked at Gyarados; he was still rather grayish, and appeared very exhausted, not to mention his paralysis. He would barely last long like that.

"Return," Mark said, recalling the sea monster back into his Pokéball too. "Guess it's down to our last Pokémon, then."

"Indeed," Mitch agreed, smiling. He took out a Pokéball; it was the one he had not used against May.

Mark hesitated a bit, but took Charmeleon's Pokéball, silently hoping that his assumption that Mitch's Pokémon were all bugs was correct.

"Go!" Mark shouted. Both of them threw the Pokéballs at the same time; Mark's became the red lizard, and Mitch's formed into something smaller, with four sets of limbs, a tail and two pincers.

"A Scorplack?" Mark asked, staring at the shiny black scorpion. "The one that… didn't kill you?"

"Of course," said Mitch, smiling. "I told you I caught him."

"Is he your strongest?" Mark asked nervously.

Mitch nodded. "Is that your starter?" he questioned back.

"Yes," Mark replied with a smile. "Flamethrower!" he then called to his Pokémon.

Charmeleon spewed a bright spiral of flames from his mouth, but Scorplack darted to the right with surprising agility and avoided it.

"Watch out for the stinger!" Mark told Charmeleon quickly. "Try another Flamethrower!"

The lizard blasted out some more flames, which Scorplack also avoided. The scorpion then swung his tail at Charmeleon, who narrowly managed to jump out of the way.

"Keep at a safe distance, Charmeleon," Mark said desperately. "Don't let it come near you, and try to attack it with fire."

"Mega Sting," Mitch commanded. "And dodge the Flamethrowers."

Scorplack shot towards Charmeleon with his stinger raised. The lizard released more flames out of his mouth, but the scorpion leapt to the side.

"Darn dodger!" Mark gritted his teeth. Charmeleon growled in agreement as he ran out of the scorpion's reach, slowing him down with a tongue of fire that he sent over his shoulder. Scorplack evaded it like the previous ones and then unexpectedly sped up, reached Charmeleon's side and swung his tail at the lizard. The tail end stung into his arm and injected poison into his blood. He roared in pain, spitting out a ball of fire. It hit the floor just by Scorplack's legs; he jumped up and ran to the side, Charmeleon following. Mark was getting worried; Charmeleon would faint any minute now, when the poison came into effect.

But he didn't.

Mark watched the lizard shoot another Flamethrower and Scorplack running frantically to the side to avoid it. For a moment he expected Charmeleon to fall unconscious in a matter of seconds. Then, when he still didn't, something hit him.

"Charmeleon!" he shouted. "You've been stung before, you must've gained an immunity to the poison! Move in for physical assault; you don't need to fear being stung!"

Hearing this, the lizard leapt forward, aiming for the scorpion. Not expecting it, Scorplack made an attempt to defend himself with his pincer, but Charmeleon came down on top of him and released a powerful blast of flames directly down at the scorpion's head. Scorplack let out a screech, but then fell silent. Charmeleon turned to Mark and sent him a salute, grinning. Mark smiled back.

"Return," Mitch said slowly to his Pokémon, holding forward the Pokéball. "Nice thinking there at the end."

Mark just blushed, his smile widening as Charmeleon returned to the Pokéball in a beam of red.

"I confer upon you the Venom Badge," Mitch announced, holding up a small object. Mark walked up to him and took it. It resembled a silver coin like the other badges; however, this one had small circular ripples in its smooth surface.

"Uh, thanks," Mark said awkwardly. "Er, yeah. Guess I'm off, then."

"Good luck," said Mitch and smiled his faint smile. Mark nodded and ran out of the Gym; he was feeling all jumpy like he couldn't just walk.

* * *

Victor looked after Mark as he ran east out of the town.

"Do you know him? And the girl who was with him when he came to town?"

Victor jumped. It was Mitch; he had seemingly been standing by his side without him noticing.

"Sort of, yeah," he replied. "I battled him, and the girl came afterwards. Why?"

Mitch nodded sadly. "I just have this feeling something bad will happen to them."


	18. The Shark and the Serpent

**Chapter 17: The Shark and the Serpent**

When Mark exited the Gym, he noticed that May wasn't there. Even as he continued down the road, he saw no traces of her. He just assumed she had continued to Aquarium City.

Aquarium City was probably the town that Mark had looked forward to seeing the most when he started his journey. It was the first and only underwater city in the Pokémon world. Covered in a gigantic glass dome, the city's oxygen came from plants specifically arranged to keep a healthy balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. It was first and foremost a tourist attraction; it was generally considered a dodgy place to live, mainly because the thought of living underwater with only a glass dome to protect oneself from the Gyarados and Sharpedo outside and one's life depending on some calculations about the oxygen percentage didn't appeal to many people. Nonetheless, the tourists loved it – especially because it had an official Pokémon Gym.

"Hey, wait!"

Mark turned around. The Mutark guy, Victor, was running after him.

"What?"

Victor looked around. "Where's May? The girl?"

"She went on to Aquarium City," Mark answered. "Why?"

"Oh," said Victor, scratching his head. "Er… you know Mitch?"

"Yeah," Mark replied, puzzled.

"Do you know what they say about him?"

Mark shook his head.

"Well – according to the rumours, he's a psychic of sorts. They say he can foresee deaths and stuff, and, uh… are you going to join up with May again?"

"Huh?" asked Mark, not sure what Victor was getting at.

"I mean, will you meet her sometime? I need to… er, give her some tips on catching a Mutark." His gaze darted to the sides; he was obviously a very bad liar, but Mark wasn't the type to point that out so he ignored it.

"Well, I'll probably meet her at Aquarium City, but to be honest I don't know if she's going to come with me from there or anything."

"Right," said Victor. "Hey, will you be attending the Pokémon Festival?"

"What festival?" Mark asked curiously.

"The festival in Green Town – the one they have every year based around Chaletwo's arrival."

"Oh – I didn't know they had a festival," Mark replied, blushing slightly. He felt stupid.

"Well, I'm going, of course – I want to see Chaletwo, he's a Dark type – and she is likely to, since she doesn't seem the type to miss it, so will you?"

"Of course," Mark answered brightly. "I love Legendary Pokémon; I'd never miss that in my life."

"We'll meet there, then," Victor said, holding out his hand.

"Sure," Mark replied, shaking it.

"Good. Bye, then," said Victor, smiling as he turned back towards Scorpio City. "See you."

Mark had slightly disliked him earlier, but he seemed like a nice guy after all. Now Mark knew about the Pokémon festival. He looked forward to it, especially getting to witness Chaletwo's appearance. Of course, there were probably fun tournaments and such, too…

* * *

It wasn't a long way to Merville, a tiny village near the seaside. Old-fashioned houses were spread irregularly around. A lot of them seemed deserted, giving the village a glum atmosphere. A dirty shop stood just by the harbor, looking just as deserted as the empty houses but nonetheless with a big OPEN sign in the window. Above the door, it said "Underwater Equipment".

Mark walked up to the wooden door and grabbed the doorknob. It was open. He stepped carefully inside.

A bearded, middle-aged man leant onto the counter, looking asleep. As soon as Mark came in, however, he sprang up and was instantly by his side.

"A customer! What can I do for you? Headed to Aquarium City, are you? Then you're in the right place! We've got everything, all 100% organic!"

"Er," Mark just stammered.

"You'll need an H2Oxy 3000; these things allow you to breathe underwater," the clerk said, reaching for a small mask-like object on a shelf. "You put it on like this," he put it on to cover his nose and mouth, then quickly took it off again as it appeared to prevent him from breathing, "and it will work oxygen out of the water. Clever, isn't it?"

"Are you sure it... works?" asked Mark skeptically. The shopkeeper shrugged. "It should work."

He stuffed it into Mark's arms and started searching for something else on the shelf.

"Let's see... you'll need an Aqua compass. It always points at Aquarium City." He showed Mark a compass which, unless Mark was very much mistaken, pointed straight west, back to Scorpio City. The guy seemed to realize that too, since he shrugged again and threw it into the garbage. "Well, this spray will make you completely water-repellant." He sprayed something that smelled like cardboard all over Mark. He coughed.

"Then there's the Sharpedo-ward," the shopkeeper continued eagerly, taking out a bottle containing a black, suspicious-looking liquid. "If you open it in the water, it will send any Sharpedo swimming! And there's a special rock here to be able to sink easier. I'm sure you'll visit again, buddy? I'm always ready at hand! Now, in total, this will be, uh…" He counted on his fingers. "…9,999 Pokédollars."

"What?" Mark asked, nonetheless finding the guy a bit funny. "I'm not going to buy it all… I think I'll just go with the H2Oxy-thing, and, um, do you have a Dive HM?" He put the rock and the Sharpedo-ward down.

"You already used the water repelling spray!" the man complained.

"That's stupid, I didn't ask for it," Mark argued. The shopkeeper sighed.

"All right then." He handed Mark a CD case. "Your ID number?"

Mark reached for his Pokédex. "0439522166," he read from the screen. The shopkeeper entered it into the computer and mumbled: "You're not getting any for the way back." Mark ignored him and walked out of the shop.

Outside, he noticed a sailor who hadn't been there before. He was a tall, muscular man and was just standing there looking blankly into the air. When Mark came out, the sailor turned around.

"Hey. Kid. Battle?"

Mark shrugged. "If you want."

"One on one," said the sailor and threw a Pokéball into the harbor. The red energy materialized into a blue shark-like Pokémon; it had no tail, but a yellow star shape on its head.

"Sharr," it growled.

Mark decided that Gyarados would most likely be his best bet for this; he had also not gotten to battle much lately, because pretty much only gym arenas had pools for non-amphibious Water Pokémon.

"Go, Gyarados!" The sea monster came out of the Pokéball into the calm sea. He dove into it and seemed to enjoy the water judging from the low, purr-like growls he was producing.

"Sharpedo, Crunch!" ordered the sailor. The shark immediately lunged at Gyarados and sank its fangs into his white tail fin. He roared in pain and tried to shake Sharpedo off; it still held on. Gyarados slammed his tail against the harbor wall, Sharpedo still stuck on. Receiving a harsh blow, the shark let go off his tail. Blood oozed out, making the water slightly murkier. Mark bit his lip; he just hoped Gyarados wasn't too hurt.

"Another Crunch, Sharpedo!" the sailor shouted, and his Pokémon darted towards Gyarados's tail again. This time, however, the monster just let the shark bite him. He waited perfectly still, obviously in pain, but didn't move.

"Let him go!" said the sailor desperately. Mark first wondered why; then he remembered one of the things he had managed to register in Pokémonology: Sharpedo always had to keep swimming forward so that water would flow through their gills. If they were held in place, they could suffocate…

"Return," said the Sailor, holding out his Pokéball to recall Sharpedo. The shark disappeared in a beam of red light.

"You ought to teach your Gyarados some manners," the sailor commented coldly. "That's a monster."

"Sorry," Mark just muttered as he recalled Gyarados.

"I could sue your pants off, you know," the sailor continued. "And have your Gyarados disposed of for breaking the Agreement."

"I know," said Mark miserably. He had no idea why Gyarados had tried to literally drown the Sharpedo – and he had been too stunned to recall him.

"But I'll let you slide this time, just because I don't have the time," the sailor said as he turned around and walked into the village again.

Mark stared blankly at nothing for a few seconds before realizing what he was supposed to be doing. He released Gyarados from his Pokéball again, and took out the CD he had bought earlier.

"Gyarados, you'll need to learn Dive so we can get to Aquarium City," Mark explained, holding the disc forward. Gyarados touched it lightly with his forehead, and the disc's deep blue color ripped loose from it and sank into his body. He shook himself slightly, and then nodded.

"Okay, great," Mark said nervously. "Now I need to get on your back, I guess."

Gyarados obediently swam nearer to the bank and turned his side towards Mark. He walked unsurely to the edge of the concrete, not sure exactly how to mount Gyarados. Finally, he just grabbed the dragon's head tightly with his arms and somehow managed to use the plates that stuck out on either side of the first segment of armor as footing while he sat in front of the first fin.

"Is this okay, Gyarados?" he asked, worried that it might be uncomfortable for the sea serpent. He just nodded slightly.

"All right…" Mark took out the H2Oxy and held it in his hand. "Be ready to dive, Gyarados… one, two… THREE!" He took a deep breath and put on the H2Oxy as Gyarados dove under the surface. Holding on for dear life, Mark felt like he was in some kind of a rollercoaster with very sub-par seats that additionally included the thrill of not knowing whether one would drown in it or not.

He was relieved to find that the H2Oxy did work; while breathing was a bit harder than on dry land, he could manage this way. The water repel-spray apparently also worked, as he didn't seem to be getting wet. Mark also discovered that it had been a mistake not to buy the Sharpedo-ward.

It was probably the smell of Gyarados's blood in the water that attracted them; at least they looked like they were expecting some easy prey. There were around ten of those sharks like the one the sailor had, and they all stared murderously at Mark and Gyarados.

The dragon shook Mark off and darted at the Sharpedo. They scattered, but for some reason he kept on chasing one of them in particular and, to Mark's great disgust, caught it. Gyarados, having locked his jaws securely around the shark's body, started shaking it vigorously until he ripped a bit of flesh apart from the body and swallowed it. Catching the slowly sinking corpse again, he took some more. Now the scene was getting shrouded in the Sharpedo's blood, saving Mark from having to see any more Sharpedo innards.

It wasn't long until Gyarados appeared to have finished all that was edible of the Sharpedo, since he came swimming back to Mark like nothing had happened. Mark wanted to say something, but was unable to because they were in the water. He got uneasily on Gyarados's back again, and they continued towards the distant light that was Aquarium City.

The Sharpedo appeared to have learned their lesson and didn't bother Mark and Gyarados further. He was fascinated by a group of cute, light blue seahorses called Horsea and the larger, more vicious Seadra leading them; the Horsea fluttered their tiny, wing-like fins and managed to swim very cutely that way, while the Seadra flapped its spiked fins slowly and gracefully, ready to defend the young ones. After the Horsea swam past, Mark noticed what looked like a swimming rock. Then he realized that it was a rock-like fish Pokémon.

Various Pokémonology lessons whirred past; then finally this Pokémon's identity clunked into place. It was a Relicanth, and they were…

"Incredibly rare!" Mark mouthed behind the H2Oxy. He prodded Gyarados's head slightly and pointed at the ancient fish. The message was understood; Gyarados darted at the Relicanth and grabbed it by the tail. The fish, however, quickly started glowing red as it summoned some large rocks from different directions that smashed into the sea monster's head. He was knocked unconscious by the blow, and the Relicanth managed to disappear, very quickly for a Rock type.

Mark had no choice but to recall Gyarados, and now he was in trouble. This had clearly been a very powerful Relicanth to beat Gyarados in one hit and be so strangely fast. Now he had no Pokémon to Dive on, so he'd have to swim all the way to Aquarium City.

He started swimming a bit, but the lights of the city never seemed to draw any nearer. He had to rest after a short while, and discovered then to his horror that the Sharpedo had noticed that Gyarados was unable to battle. Their shadows steadily grew closer…

Mark was basically panicking when suddenly, what seemed at first to be another Gyarados shot forward and started fighting the sharks off. The Sharpedo quickly realized that they didn't stand a chance and disappeared.

Mark's savior now turned gently around. It was not a Gyarados, but it was another sea serpent – this one had a more draconic head, and a sleeker, darker body. Nothing at all could be read from the expression in its deep, black eyes.

Then it neared him, and came close to his face. It tilted its head slightly while examining him thoroughly; he hardly dared to breathe through the H2Oxy. Then, slowly and gracefully, it turned its side towards him in what was clearly a gesture for him to mount it.

The monster blinked. Mark guessed he didn't have much of a choice, whatever the Pokémon's intent was; the Sharpedo could come back if he tried to swim by himself. Trembling, he wrapped his arms around the creature's scaly neck; there was something so comfortable and motherly about it that he felt safe if he only held on to it well enough…

The dragon shot quickly through the water, so smoothly that Mark barely felt it. He lost all sense of time clinging on to the creature's neck, but after some amount of time, they came to a halt. The gigantic glass dome that covered Aquarium City was ahead; beautiful lights from the inside illuminated the sea next to it and just two meters away was the entrance to the tube that led inside.

Mark went off the monster's back and dragged himself exhaustedly in through the door. Suddenly he remembered that he had never heard of this Pokémon before; he quickly took his Pokédex off his belt and pointed it out at the sea serpent.

"Monarking, monster Pokémon. This very rare, aquatic Pokémon is said to be somewhat magical and is highly intelligent. They said to occasionally help humans whose lives are in danger."

He slowly put the Pokédex down. The Monarking outside the glass gave him a slow nod, and then swam away. Mark lost sight of it as it blended into the color of the ocean around it.


	19. Enemies Forever

**Chapter 18: Enemies Forever**

Dazed and still in shock, Mark made his way along the tube. At the end, there was a second door; in order for the water not to flood inside, Mark had to press a button that would empty the tube before entering. The water-repellant spray had gotten him there completely dry; he removed the H2Oxy from his face when the water level lowered past his head, and once the tube was dry, the glass door opened with a hiss and he walked into the city.

It was bustling with life. People were all around the main street, many with their Pokémon. Plants were at every corner. Ahead, a huge, white building with the words "POKÉMON GYM" written on it in red letters towered over the rest of the houses; it appeared to be exactly in the middle of the glass dome.

Mark was too tired to be excited. He felt like he hadn't slept for months. He dragged off towards a hotel sign, and met May just in front of the hotel

"Oh, hi!" she greeted him happily.

"Hi," he mumbled, feeling slow.

"I just won my badge," said May, breaking into a wide grin as she took a silver coin from an inner pocket in her jacket. This one had waves engraved in it.

"Nice," Mark said, trying to seem interested. May frowned.

"Did that idiotic shopkeeper sell you a 'D-press' or something? You're like a ghost."

"Mmmh," Mark just replied.

"Anyway, Larvitar evolved," May announced proudly, taking one of the Pokéballs off her necklace. "Look."

She dropped it to the ground; the red light formed into a blue cocoon-like creature. It looked at Mark with resentful eyes, then just stared straight forward with a gloomy expression. Mark would've been impressed, but at the moment all he could think of was bed.

"I'll talk to you later, I want some sleep," he muttered.

May looked at him for a second, but then just shrugged.

"You sure need it," she sighed and walked off. Mark walked sleepily in, paid absent-mindedly for a room and sluggishly walked along the corridor. He entered with a funny feeling like his eyeballs were melting, dropped into the bed and instantly drifted into deep sleep.

When he woke up, he wasn't sure where he was, but he felt extremely good and refreshed. After a few hazy moments of rubbing his eyes and looking blankly around, he started to regain the cloudy memories of the journey to Aquarium City.

"Oh, yeah…" he muttered. "Gyarados… he killed a Sharpedo…"

Somehow, the image didn't bother him anymore. He blinked.

Then, he had been saved by… that thing. Mo… Mo-something. Mona? Monarch? Monarking? Yeah, that was it. Something that was supposed to be magical and highly intelligent with a tendency to save people…

Suddenly, it dawned on to him how extremely lucky he had been. About to get eaten by a bunch of Sharpedo, and then a Pokémon that loves saving everybody happens to pass!

What made it even funnier was that it wasn't even Mark's usual luck at all. If it had been his luck, the Monarking would've passed but thought he looked too stupid to save him. Yeah, Mark convinced himself, that would definitely have been typical him.

He sighed. He hadn't even thanked the creature. If he had another similar experience on the way up to the surface, it would definitely not bother saving him again. At least he wouldn't if he was a Monarking. He'd probably be thinking: _You're being too nice, you know... why save all those pesky humans? They've never saved you._

Mark checked his digital watch. Seven in the morning. His stomach gurgled; he figured he'd better get himself some breakfast.

Mark poured cereal into his bowl and splashed some milk over it. There were a few people eating now too; May was not among them so Mark assumed that she was still sleeping. He took his time eating his breakfast and finally headed out to the Pokémon Center.

"Hi," he greeted Nurse Joy, "I left my Sandslash at the Pokémon Center in Scorpio City. Can you contact the nurse there and see if he has recovered?"

Nurse Joy bowed and turned to the videophone behind her. She picked up the receiver, dialed the number and held it to her ear. A picture of the Nurse Joy in Scorpio City soon appeared; she looked tired and half-asleep like she had been working for most of the night.

"What?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"There's a boy here asking about his Sandslash," the Joy at Mark's end answered. She stepped slightly aside; the Joy in Scorpio City peered at Mark through the screen and then seemed to remember him.

"Oh, yeah," she mumbled. "Yes, your Sandslash is fine. Should I send him over?"

"Yes, please," Mark answered, loudly enough for the receiver to pick it up. The nurse nodded and placed a Pokéball under the tube of her transfer machine and pressed a button. On the screen, they could see the Pokéball being sucked up into the tube; just a second later, it dropped down from the tube right in front of them.

"Bye…" said Nurse Joy of Scorpio City with a yawn. She put the receiver back into place, and the screen went static.

The nurse replaced the receiver to turn off the videophone and handed Mark the Pokéball. "Have a nice day," she said, smiling warmly. He thanked her and walked outside, putting the ball back on his belt.

Next stop was the Gym. Mark walked firmly towards the big building in the center of the city. He didn't know if it was already open; if not, he could go training or something. In fact, he was almost doubtful when he found a sign on the door which clarified that it had opened at seven; on the way, while trying to convince himself that it wouldn't be so bad even if it wasn't open, he had managed to get an uneasy feeling like he wasn't at all ready to face the Gym Leader yet. Still, he shrugged; maybe it wouldn't be that bad. He opened the modern-looking glass door and stepped inside.

The Gym was round with a rather narrow brink along the walls, but two half-circle shaped pools in the middle. In the very center, the bank that separated the two pools became a circle. It took a second for Mark to realize that from above, the Gym would look like a Pokéball.

"Good morning," came a powerful-sounding female voice from the other end of the arena. The speaker was a woman who looked in her mid to late thirties. Her wavy, dark blue hair fell almost down to the floor, and her sapphire blue dress covered her feet completely as she walked slowly left from a door on the right side of the opposite wall.

"You are here for a badge, aren't you?" she asked, turning around in the exact center. Her voice had some odd kind of grace to it; she spoke loudly and clearly, in a royal sort of tone.

"Yeah." Mark nodded.

"Good…"

The woman looked slightly into the air for a second, but then turned straight to Mark again. "My name is Marge, and I am the Gym Leader of Aquarium City. Defeat me…"

She held forward a silver coin in her long fingers.

"…and earn the Surf Badge."

Mark just nodded.

"We will battle in three rounds of two-on-two," said Marge, cracking her knuckles as she started staring into the air again. "Because few trainers here have been to Hoenn, where two-on-two battles originate, I will explain to you the rules…"

Mark nodded again. He had heard of two-on-two battles, but obviously he had never tried one.

"Both trainers send out two Pokémon at a time. The Pokémon must work together to defeat the other trainer's two Pokémon."

She paused, and then went on: "We will be battling in rounds here, so if one of your Pokémon faints, you do not send out a replacement. The remaining Pokémon will have to try to defeat the other Pokémon. The trainer who has the last Pokémon standing wins the round. Then all Pokémon used in that round are recalled, and must not be sent out again… I assume that you have a full team of six Pokémon already, of course?"

"Yes," Mark answered. He bit his lip; this sounded hard.

"So the battle shall…"

Marge took out two Pokéballs from her silk belt and maximized them.

"…begin."

She threw the two balls into the pool on her end. Mark nervously watched the two shapes form: a light blue, catlike creature with fins around its neck, on the sides and top of the head and along the whole back, and a green and yellow frog.

Mark thought for a bit. If he remembered correctly, a lot of Water Pokémon had the Water Absorb ability, which allowed them to be healed through coming in contact with water alone. They would have to be taken down quickly. His first thought was Scyther; then he remembered that Water Pokémon often learned Ice attacks, which he would be very vulnerable against.

"Oh well," he sighed, "go, Gyarados and Eevee."

He almost dropped one of the balls when he maximized them, and decided he'd rather just throw one ball with each hand. The Pokémon materialized, Eevee on the circle in the middle and Gyarados in the pool behind him.

"Gyarados, can you use that powerful thingy? On… er, Vaporeon?" Mark asked hopefully. Gyarados nodded, closed his eyes and his colors started fading.

"Um, Eevee, try a Quick Attack on Politoed."

Eevee instantly leapt towards the frog Pokémon. It had no means of avoiding the fast attack and was knocked slightly backwards, but had plenty of energy left. Eevee darted back, but the frog fired a jet of water from its mouth at the brown Pokémon and the pressure pushed him into the pool on Mark's end. Just as he frantically tried to swim to the bank, Gyarados released the powerful red beam which shot towards the mermaid-like cat. As it tried to dive, the beam followed its fish-like tail and hit it. The Water Pokémon's body stiffened up and it started to sink helplessly to the bottom.

"Return, Vaporeon," Marge said hastily, allowing the red beam from her Pokéball to recall her cat Pokémon. "Politoed, use a Surf."

Instantly, a wave of water rose up from Marge's pool and crashed towards Eevee and Gyarados. Eevee shrieked as he was soaked by it and was left unconscious; Gyarados didn't appear too hurt.

"Return, Eevee," Mark said disappointedly. "Umm… another mega attack-thingy, Gyarados," he suggested. The sea monster again started graying; it took less time to charge the beam now, but it looked a lot less powerful this time too. Not as bright as before, it shot towards Politoed, but much to Mark's surprise, Politoed didn't look too hurt by it.

"Er… try again?" Mark said doubtfully to Gyarados. As he charged, Politoed grew healthier from absorbing the water in the pool. At the time when Gyarados fired the beam, the frog seemed to be fully healed, and the attack hurt it even less this time.

Mark felt later that he really should've figured that there was something wrong with repeated uses of Gyarados's powerful attack by now, but he didn't and ordered the sea monster to try it again.

"Ice Beam," said Marge to her Pokémon. While Gyarados was charging (he seemed to be getting exhausted now and taking longer time for it again), the frog shot a beam of ice crystals at him from its mouth. When it hit Gyarados, he roared in pain and seemed to lose concentration for the attack. He desperately tried again; Politoed sent another Ice Beam at him while he was trying and finally, he collapsed weakly, fainted.

"Return," said Mark hopelessly. Gyarados had just done what he had told him; had that been the reason he lost?

"Very well," Marge announced expressionlessly. "I have claimed victory in the first round. In order to win the battle, you must win both remaining rounds."

"I know," Mark replied.

"Go, Feraligatr and Quagsire," Marge said. Mark cursed under his breath as her two Pokémon formed: the same kind of a big blue alligator that the Mew Hunter had possessed, and a rubbery, dopey-looking creature that mostly resembled a light blue bipedal jelly sausage with webbed feet and two rounded fins for arms. She was probably saving her best for the last – meaning that Mark should probably better save Scyther for the last round.

"Go, Sandslash and Dratini."

Mark realized with guilt that this was the first time that Dratini actually got to battle against a trainer, save for the battle against May's Larvitar in the Rainbow Woods. Then he had only gotten to battle a few wild Pokémon. He was a bit neglected. But this wasn't the time to think about that.

"Feraligatr, Crunch the Dratini," said Marge. "Quagsire, Earthquake."

"Dratini, Twister on the Quagsire," Mark said quickly. "Sandslash, try to distract Feraligatr with a Slash."

Dratini spun around at top speed and whipped up a powerful whirlwind of green dragon flames that was sent towards the jelly-like creature, while Sandslash jumped up and swiped his claws across the alligator's face. Feraligatr roared and blasted a jet of water at the pangolin; Sandslash quickly curled up into a ball to repel as much of it as he could as he was thrown backwards from the pressure. Just then, the Quagsire let out a loud belch of "QUA-A-AG!" and jumped into the air, coming down hard and sending ripples across the floor. Feraligatr was hurt by it just as much as Dratini and Sandslash, but that was damage to one of her Pokémon but both of his.

"Umm…" Mark suddenly thought of his own variation of Marge's combo. "Dratini, dive into the pool! Sandslash, Earthquake!"

Dratini threw himself into the water as Sandslash leapt up, producing a powerful tremor as he landed. Both Feraligatr and Quagsire were severely hurt; Dratini, being in the water, was not affected by it, just like Mark had hoped.

"Dratini, try a Thunder Wave on Feraligatr. Sandslash, use another Earthquake."

"Quagsire, Ice Beam on Sandslash," Marge ordered. "Feraligatr, try to get rid of Dratini."

Luckily, Dratini was quicker carrying out his order. He jumped up and while in the air, his body sparkled with electricity which he sent flying at the alligator. Its muscles stiffened up, preventing it from moving as Sandslash and Quagsire both prepared their attacks. As the pangolin came down on the ground, both Feraligatr and Quagsire were hit; the alligator collapsed and Marge recalled him, but the rather weak Quagsire sent a beam of ice at Sandslash, which blasted him back a short distance and left him unconscious.

"Come back, Sandslash; you did a great job," Mark complimented his Pokémon as he recalled him. Now he had only Dratini left, but Quagsire was weak…

"Quagsire, dive into the pool," Marge commanded calmly, and the jelly-like fish jumped into the water, starting to absorb it and grow healthier. Like to counter this turn of events, Dratini became wrapped in a white glow.

Mark watched, stunned, as his little dragon grew longer and sleeker. As the glow faded, he was revealed to have a more shaped head, a sapphire blue orb under it on his neck, and two similar orbs near the end of his tail.

"Whoa. You evolved," Mark said blankly.

"Gonair," the newly evolved Pokémon confirmed, turning to his opponent.

"Er… Wrap? Or something?" Mark suggested, not sure what a Dragonair could do exactly. The dragon slithered towards Quagsire; the fish backed away and attempted an Ice Beam, but Dragonair whipped himself aside so that it crashed into the wall instead. Then, with a quick movement, he wrapped himself around Quagsire's body and started squeezing hard.

"Qua-a…" gasped the Pokémon, trying hard to keep breathing. Dragonair tightened his grip every time the fish exhaled, and after a few more seconds of strain, Quagsire fell unconscious. Dragonair loosened the hold slightly in order not to kill the amphibian; Marge silently took out a Pokéball and recalled her Quagsire.

"Very well," she said as Mark brightly recalled Dragonair. "Now we are even. The last round will decide the winner…"

She smiled. "Go, Lapras and Starmie!"

Mark was right; they were probably her best. From her two Pokéballs formed a big sea turtle like May had and a ten-armed purple starfish with a ruby set in the golden core.

He was about to take his last two Pokéballs when he realized that his two Pokémon left were the rivals Scyther and Charmeleon. Just how likely were they to co-operate in a two-on-two?

_Oh man,_ he thought to himself, _how stupid can I get?_

But he couldn't forfeit. He just couldn't. He had a chance of winning – if Scyther and Charmeleon could just put their hate aside for one battle.

He nervously took his two last Pokéballs. "Go, Scyther and Charmeleon."

The mantis and the lizard formed, instantly noticed each other and exchanged some nasty glares.

"Guys," Mark interrupted, "this is a serious battle. We're in the Aquarium City Gym, and this is the final round of this two-on-two, which decides the winner. If you can just behave nicely this once we'll win this, okay?"

Scyther nodded curtly and turned towards Lapras. Charmeleon snorted disdainfully and turned his attention to the starfish.

"Great," Mark said cheerfully, contrasting with his true feelings. "Scyther, Slash Lapras, and Charmeleon, you can try a Flamethrower."

Scyther immediately dashed forward, flying over the first pool and aiming his scythe at the Lapras's neck. Charmeleon ran along the brink by the wall, and fired a blast of flames from his mouth. The starfish leapt out of the way with great agility, and Charmeleon just "happened" to be positioned exactly so that the flames instead scorched Scyther's exoskeleton. Bathed in flames for a second, Scyther made no sound but wore an expression of great agony as he landed, torched, on the circle in the middle of the arena.

"Sorry," said Charmeleon sarcastically with a broad grin on his face. Scyther leered at him, but jerked his head back in Lapras's direction, as if he wanted to say, "You're not worth it."

Charmeleon started running again, this time along the path between the pools. Starmie, who had jumped into Mark's pool to avoid the Flamethrower, fired a stream of water at the lizard; Charmeleon leapt out of the way, and the water instead hit Scyther's back as he was about to take off. Again, Scyther turned around and glared icily at the lizard.

"I thought it would help cool you down, you know," said Charmeleon in a mockingly innocent tone. Scyther ignored him and leapt forward to slash at Starmie. The starfish dived into the water so Scyther had to land again.

Charmeleon's wicked grin widened as he breathed softly into his palm and then tossed a tiny but very hot fireball towards the mantis. It hit Scyther's wing and burned a hole in it. The mantis whirled murderously around, not showing any signs of pain.

"Oops, I sneezed," Charmeleon said, his grin still broadening. Scyther turned back to Lapras as Charmeleon snorted. Then the bug turned firmly around, glared at Charmeleon for a second and then suddenly leapt into the air and zoomed at the lizard with both of his scythes raised.

He never hit. Mark recalled them both just before Scyther's blades made contact with Charmeleon. He muttered some kind of an excuse to Marge, forfeiting the battle before he scurried off to the Pokémon Center.

After all his Pokémon had gotten basic healing and Scyther had been treated with a Burn Heal, Mark got his Pokéballs back. He went off to a corner; he wanted to talk to Scyther and Charmeleon individually without interruptions.

He sent Charmeleon out first. The lizard seemed to know what Mark wanted to talk to him about; as soon as he had materialized, he started talking:

"Did you see that, Mark? I told you he'd be dangerous! He tried to kill me, for crying out loud!"

"And do you have the vaguest idea of why that was?" Mark spat angrily, causing Charmeleon's casual expression to turn more serious. "You asked for it! You attacked him! He even resisted the urge to attack you back for the first two times! What's wrong with you? He hasn't done anything to you!"

"No, thanks you," Charmeleon replied. "There you see what he can do. One little joke, and he wants to write satanic chants with your blood. It's not safe to be around him. Just you wait; he's going to slit both of our throats sometime when we're sleeping if you don't do anything about it."

Mark didn't feel like replying to that and just took out the Pokéball again.

"Return," he said emptily.

"See ya in the afterlife," were Charmeleon's last words before he was dissolved into red energy and drawn back into his Pokéball.

"Scyther, why did you attack Charmeleon?"

"Because he was daring me to do it throughout the whole battle," the mantis said in his usual, calm tone.

"But you were resisting that urge just fine before, weren't you?" Mark said angrily.

"Third time's the charm," Scyther replied.

"Why third time rather than the fourth or fifth or one-hundredth or, even better, no time at all?" Mark hissed.

"Charmeleon was humiliating me," Scyther hissed back. "I couldn't just stand there and battle like a nice Pokémon!"

"Look, I just don't want two of my Pokémon fighting!" Mark said loudly. Scyther's calmness somehow just frustrated him.

"This is none of your business, Mark," Scyther stated. "It's a personal matter between Charmeleon and me. We can handle this on our own."

"OF COURSE IT'S SOME OF MY BUSINESS!" Mark screamed. "YOU'RE MY FREAKING POKÉMON!"

With a lightning-quick movement, Scyther's right scythe came flying towards Mark's face. It stopped a centimeter or so from his nose.

Mark didn't dare to breathe. He just stared at the deadly blade that had almost killed him. After what seemed like ages, Scyther looked strangely at him and slowly lowered his scythe. As Mark caught his breath again, he fell backwards against the wall.

"I'm… sorry," Scyther muttered. "It's just a subconscious reaction…"

"You almost gave me a heart attack," Mark mumbled in a trembling voice. Scyther turned around and then was slowly enveloped in a red glow as he recalled himself back into the Pokéball. Mark was left pressing his back against the wall, sweating and shivering uncontrollably as some of the people whose attention had been caught alerted Nurse Joy.

His last conscious thought was that maybe Charmeleon's theory wasn't all that far-fetched.


	20. Good or Evil?

**Chapter 19: Good or Evil?**

When Mark regained consciousness, he was still in the Pokémon Center, lying on one of the sofas. A crowd of people stood over him; murmurs of "He's waking up…" went through the group as he opened his eyes. Most of the people left now, but a familiar blue-haired girl still waited.

"Mark? You okay?" May asked. He mumbled something.

"What happened?" she inquired. "They're saying your Scyther attacked you; is it true?"

"Nah," Mark muttered. "It was just the excitement…"

May very obviously saw right through him, but as usual she didn't ask and just changed the subject instead. "Hey, you'll be happy when you hear why I waited for you to wake up."

"Why?" Mark questioned.

"I managed to find a guy with an Exeggcute who is willing to let it Teleport us to Green Town. How does that sound?"

"Great," Mark replied, smiling. May could be very useful sometimes. "What time is it?" he asked.

"Quarter past two," she replied. "Oh, yeah, did you get your badge?"

Mark blushed. "Eh, not really."

May raised an eyebrow. "How did it go?"

"Well, Eevee and Gyarados lost to her Politoed and Vaporeon, and Sandslash and Dratini, who is now a Dragonair, beat her Feraligatr and Quagsire, but then I had just Scyther and Charmeleon left, and…"

"Did they almost kill Charmeleon or something so you had to forfeit?" May guessed.

"No," Mark replied miserably. "I guess I never told you, but Scyther and Charmeleon hate each other."

There was a short silence. "Oh," May then answered, seemingly surprised. "I didn't know."

"Well, Charmeleon basically started taunting Scyther, and then Scyther came and was going to kill him, so I had to recall them…" Mark explained painfully.

"And did you then faint?" May questioned disbelievingly.

"Er, I took them inside and Scyther, well… it was true, he did attack me."

May's mouth fell open. "What? How are you still alive?"

"He stopped himself just before…"

"But what are you going to do?" May interrupted.

"What can I do?" Mark yelled out in frustration. "If he's going to kill me, he'll do it before I can do anything about it! He hears through Pokéballs and can break out of them! Releasing him would be suicide, trying to get him disposed of some other way would also be, and keeping him in the Pokéball makes him a ticking bomb that can explode at any time! Is there anything at all that I can do?"

Suddenly, he felt hopeless, small and scared. "Why does everything like this happen to me?" he whimpered.

"Come on, you look silly," May hissed. "Just get it through your thick skull that you're not the unluckiest person in the world! Why are you always feeling sorry for yourself? You don't even know if Scyther is a secret assassin – and really, if he was, wouldn't he have killed you already? You're being stupid, Mark. Just stand up, get your badge and stop whining."

Mark felt like he had just been punched in the face, but somehow it was relieving.

"You're right," he said blankly, standing slowly up. "I'm just being stupid. I'll just go and battle Marge again, and we can go off to Green Town."

"Don't take too long," May called after him as he started walking out of the Pokémon Center. "Or I might leave without you."

* * *

Mark stepped into the Gym for the second time this day. Marge was still standing at the other end; she bowed slightly when he entered.

"Umm, yeah, I'm here for a rematch," Mark said nervously. Marge nodded.

"And… since we were even after two rounds earlier, can we just take one round now?" Mark suggested.

"Using the same Pokémon?" Marge asked emotionlessly.

"Eh," Mark got an uncomfortable sting in his stomach, "I'd prefer not; they won't be able to work together anytime soon."

"Then," Marge began, pacing around her end of the arena, "you must send out your Pokémon first."

"Sure," said Mark, shrugging. Better than nothing.

"Go, Scyther and Dragonair!"

The mantis and the snake-like dragon came out of the Pokéballs, calling out their names.

"Interesting…" said Marge slowly before taking out two of her own Pokéballs. "Go, Lapras and Starmie."

The sea turtle and the starfish from earlier emerged from the red light, facing Mark's Pokémon. He took a deep breath.

"Okay, Dragonair, use a Dragonbreath, if you know that, or Twister or something, on Lapras. Scyther… can you use Fury Cutter? If not, just a normal Slash. Attack Starmie."

It was first now dawning on to Mark that he didn't know anything about his Pokémon's attacks. He remembered Twister from the Pokédex since he checked Dratini's stats in Rainbow Woods, but he had never battled with Scyther before and just vaguely remembered something about Fury Cutter being Scyther's signature move. Marge had to think he was an idiot.

Either way, his Pokémon obeyed. Dragonair spun around at high speed, producing a green whirlwind of dragon flames and sending it towards the blue turtle. It let out a high-pitched wail before countering with an icy beam which blasted into Dragonair, clearly leaving him very hurt. Meanwhile, Scyther jumped up and darted towards Starmie. He slashed it loosely and his scythes started glowing faint green. Starmie, seemingly not very much hurt, countered with a beam of ice which sent Scyther flying backwards. He growled as he returned right to the starfish and slashed it again, more powerfully than before.

"Both of you, Ice Beam," said Marge calmly. Her two Pokémon both leant backwards, charging up new beams of ice.

"Quick, Dragonair, dive!" Mark blurted out. "Scyther, keep using Fury Cutter but try to dodge the attacks!" He knew that Fury Cutter would only increase in power if used many times with not too long between them. If the Pokémon that used it lost concentration, the power would fade completely.

Scyther zoomed down at Starmie and slashed it with his now glowing blades. Dragonair dove into the pool, narrowly avoiding the Ice Beam as Lapras fired it. Starmie aimed well after being struck by Scyther and blasted him into the wall. He shook himself slightly before slashing at Starmie again. With each hit, the glow on his scythes intensified and the slashes got more powerful.

Finally, Scyther slashed Starmie sharply and the starfish collapsed. Marge returned it without words, and issued a command to her sea turtle:

"Ice Beam his pool."

Lapras blasted a beam of ice at the pool. The water froze instantly; Dragonair, being underwater, was trapped completely in the middle of the completely frozen pool.

"Dragonair, come back," Mark said worriedly, recalling his Pokémon through the sheet of ice. "Scyther, keep using Fury Cutter on Lapras! You can do this!"

The last words were encouraging, but not convincing. Lapras was not very hurt, but Scyther was getting weak now after having been hit by two Ice Beams from Starmie.

"Lapras, Blizzard," Marge said in an icy voice as Scyther rushed towards the sea turtle. Mark clenched his fist while Lapras swung its neck back…

A vicious blast of snow and wind obscured the room – but it narrowly missed Scyther as he swung out of the way.

His brightly glowing scythe cut powerfully across the base of Lapras's neck. The Pokémon let out a screech as blood gushed out; Scyther flew back and landed in the middle of the arena.

"I forfeit," said Marge quickly, taking out another Pokéball. Out of it came the mermaid cat, Vaporeon. Without a command, it fired a soft stream of water at Lapras's cut; for a moment, the stream obscured the wound, but when Vaporeon ended the Water Gun attack, the cut was no longer visible. Lapras winced, but appeared all right.

Marge recalled her Pokémon and walked gracefully across the arena, handing Mark a badge like the one May had.

"You battled fairly well," she commented, "but rather brutally." She turned to Scyther as she said the last words; he was just finishing licking his scythes clean. He turned emptily to her, looking into her eyes with an odd, blank but somehow tragic expression, and returned to his Pokéball.

"Sorry," Mark excused awkwardly. "He's a bit… strange…"

Marge didn't reply; she just nodded and then swept around to walk out of the arena. Mark assumed that since he had his badge, he could leave. Hesitating, he turned around and walked out through the door.

May was waiting for him outside.

"Got your badge this time?" she questioned.

"Yeah," Mark replied.

"You sound pretty gloomy for somebody who's just won a badge," May commented as she started walking, Mark following.

"Mmm," he answered. She just sighed.

"You really need to cheer up a little bit, you know. Feel good just once."

Mark was too polite to tell her that he found her extremely annoying, so he didn't answer.

"Hey!"

A brown-haired boy wearing a green T-shirt ran up to them. "It's good I found you; I'm in a bit of a hurry, you see - can you teleport now?"

May looked at Mark. "Umm, I think I have all my stuff, at least," he answered.

"Great," said the boy, taking a Pokéball from his belt. He threw it to reveal what looked like six pink, creepy eggs with evil grins. They hovered just above the ground, floating slightly up and down.

"Come on, Mark," May said, leaning down to touch the eggs. Mark did the same; he couldn't get rid of the feeling that those eggs would bite him, though.

"Okay, Exeggcute," said the trainer loudly, "Teleport to the Green Town Pokémon Center."

"Exeggcute!" answered six mischievous voices as the Pokémon started flickering. Then suddenly, Mark discovered that he was in a Pokémon Center; it was one of the pink-furry-carpet ones.

May took her hand off the egg Pokémon, and Mark hesitatingly removed his. The Pokémon started flickering again, and disappeared.

Mark looked around. This Pokémon Center might have had the same architect as the ones in Cleanwater, Alumine and Aquarium City, but it was probably bigger than all three of them put together. That was no surprise, since Green Town was the biggest city in Ouen. It had increased so rapidly in size that it still had that name; in order not to seem like the name was just irony, trees had been planted all around to make it somewhat green.

But the Pokémon Center had no signs of green. Currently its white walls were covered in posters about the Pokémon Festival; it was also crowded with people who were mostly reading the posters and chatting excitedly. A big digital clock on the wall showed the time.

Mark suddenly noticed that May was already standing by a poster, reading. He walked up to her; the poster was a notice that the Gym was closed during the festival.

"I think I'm going to challenge the Gym Leader now. When are you planning to do it?" she said, turning to him.

"Not now, at least," Mark answered. "I mean, I just came back from the last Gym."

May shrugged. "Sure. Bye, then."

"Bye."

May hurried out of the Pokémon Center. Mark wasn't sure what to do, but then his eyes found a poster with a big, picture of Chaletwo. The left half portrayed him normally, on a white background; the right half had him colored darker, with the blinding yellow eye open, on a black background. Interested, he walked up to it and started reading.

_CHALETWO: GOOD OR EVIL?_

_Since 870 AW, people have started doubting Chaletwo's original claim of not intending to harm any living being. This, of course, is due to the famous Leah-Mary cases._

_During his appearance in 870, Chaletwo murdered a twelve-year-old girl by the name of Leah Donaldson using his lethal Death Stare attack, without any apparent reason. After the act, Chaletwo left as he would any other year – but this time he took an innocent's soul with him._

_Leah's family was devastated, and claimed that she could in no way have done anything that might have provoked the Legendary to do this. Most people were doubtful that Chaletwo would commit murder without a reason and the case quickly died down; however when Chaletwo killed another girl the next year, this time fifteen-year-old Mary Goldman from Johto, the voices rose up again fiercely. Two boys followed the next two years…_

Mark stopped reading. He felt sick already. First Suicune, now Chaletwo! Why were all Legendaries he got the chance to see brutal murderers of some sort? Of course, Suicune had been innocent, since Gyarados was the one who killed the people, but those were apparently murdered within the eyesight of hundreds of people…

He must have looked very shocked or pale, because he felt a finger tap his shoulder.

"Can I help you?"

Mark turned around. The person who asked was a boy who looked a few years older than him; maybe fifteen or so. He had dark, messy hair and something about his face seemed distinctly familiar.

"Er… not really, I was just reading… didn't know about this…" Mark pointed to the poster.

"Ah." The boy looked at him with a somewhat troubled expression. "You don't happen to have an interest in Legendaries, do you?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Mark, amazed that the boy could just know that from seeing him reading a poster. The boy's expression turned still more worried; he bit his lip, but then said slowly:

"I think we should talk."

* * *

**Author's Note:** The year mentioned in this chapter is according to a special dating system used in the world of this fic. It will be explained and discussed further in chapter 26 (what the site calls chapter 27).


	21. The Warning

**Chapter 20: The Warning**

"Huh?" Mark asked stupidly.

"I said, I think we should talk. I really do," the boy emphasized.

"Who are you, anyway?" Mark asked, puzzled.

"Oh, sorry," the boy apologized. "My name's Alan Ketchum."

"Ketchum?" Mark suddenly remembered why the boy's face was familiar. "As in Ash Ketchum?"

"Er," said Alan and went beet red. "Yes, kind of."

"Cool! You're related to him?" Mark asked excitedly, forgetting all about a murderous Chaletwo.

"Well, yeah," Alan admitted.

"How are you related to him?" Mark immediately questioned.

"Well… he's kind of… my father. Err…" Alan's gaze darted awkwardly around; Mark barely noticed it as his mouth fell open.

"You're his _son_? You're _Ash Ketchum's son_?" Mark stared open-mouthed at Alan, not sure if it would be appropriate to ask for an autograph or not. Several people heard him and turned around. Alan screwed his eyes hopelessly shut and looked like he wanted to sink into the floor, then grabbed Mark's shoulders and steered him out of the Pokémon Center.

"What's wrong?" Mark asked as they came out onto the sidewalk. Alan released him and sighed.

"This happens every time I meet somebody…"

"Oh," said Mark blankly. "Sorry."

Alan shrugged. "Well, it's not your fault. Dad's famous; of course everybody thinks it's great to be his son and get a ton of attention."

"Sorry," Mark apologized again. "Man, I would love to be his son," he added after a short pause.

"I doubt it," Alan just said. "I'm sure having a famous father sounds nice, but when you've had a famous father for your whole life, you're getting very sick of it."

Mark didn't answer. After all, he had no experience of it. "Where are we going?" he then asked, noticing that he had been following Alan as he walked down the street.

"Home; we'll have peace there," Alan replied.

"Home? You mean to your house?" Mark asked wide-eyed.

"Yes," Alan answered.

"Your house? As in the one where your _father_ also lives? And Pikachu?"

Alan sighed. "Yes."

"Wow!" Mark exclaimed, amazed. "Can I see them?"

"Well, Dad is probably working right now – he's one of the guys organizing the Pokémon Festival. But I suppose Pikachu might be at home, if he was too lazy to come with Dad..."

"Can I pet Pikachu?" Mark interrupted eagerly.

"…because of all the kids asking to pet him," Alan finished, rolling his eyes. "Look, no offense, but you're kinda predictable."

Mark blushed. "Sorry… I just always dreamed of meeting Ash Ketchum…"

"Everybody does," Alan muttered. "When people meet me, all they want to talk about is him. When people ask me about something, it's always 'Why did you stop Pokémon training after two years?' or 'Why didn't you compete in any leagues?' or 'Is it true that Pikachu isn't one of your favorites?' or something else in the direction of 'Why aren't you an exact replica of your father?'… And everybody thinks I _like_ to have people stare at me just because my father is famous…"

Mark didn't answer; he felt annoying and stupid.

"Anyway; we're here."

Alan stopped in front of a rather normal-looking house aside from being bigger than most of the other houses in the area. He stepped up to the door, dug into his pocket to find a key, and inserted it into the lock. After wrestling with the door for a few seconds while muttering some swear words under his breath, Alan opened the door and invited Mark inside.

Mark looked curiously around. The house was somewhat messy, but not exactly a garbage dump either. White walls, mostly green and blue furniture. A ton of photos were hung on the walls, some depicting Ash, some his wife, some Pikachu, some Alan. Both the quality and quantity of the furniture was a bit above what the average person could afford, but not much.

"Here, come on."

Alan showed Mark into the kitchen, turned the lights on and inviting Mark to sit down at the table. He hesitatingly took the chair while Alan opened the refrigerator.

"Would you like something?"

"Er… I don't really need…" Mark replied, mainly just for the sake of being polite.

"Something to drink? Coke? Pepsi?" Alan asked, perhaps feeling that tone in his voice.

"Uh, coke, thanks."

Alan took out a bottle of coke and fetched two glasses. After pouring the drink into them, he sat down opposite him.

"Anyway…" Mark started after taking a sip of his coke.

"Chaletwo." Alan finished for him.

"Yeah, did he really kill four kids?"

"Yes." Alan nodded sadly. "I watched them all."

"Huh?" Mark asked. "Why the heck did you keep coming back too see an evil, murderous Legendary Pokémon stare somebody to death?"

"He isn't evil!" Alan protested.

"Killing four random kids sound evil to me," Mark said.

"Once you see him, you'll change your mind," Alan assured him. "You'll just know it. It's impossible that he'd kill those kids just for the sheer purpose of being evil."

"How do you think you know?" Mark argued.

"It's just… a fact. I've been there to see him every year since I was born. If there is anything in this world I know, it's that Chaletwo isn't evil. Trust me."

They were distracted by a low purr. A big, creamy yellow catlike creature with three stiff whiskers on each side of its muzzle and a gleaming red gem on its forehead trotted into the kitchen. The Persian rubbed itself against Alan's hand; he scratched its ears in return.

"This is Pamela; she's my pet Persian. Pamela, this is... uh, what's your name again?"

"Mark," he said. Pamela looked suspiciously at him.

"She has a thing about judging people," Alan explained. "Either she hates you, and will hiss if you come anywhere near her, or… uh oh, I think she likes you. Prepare to be sniffed."

Pamela walked over to Mark and started sniffing at his shoes. She gradually went up his legs, and then put her front paws on the chair to be able to reach his upper half. After looking him in the eyes for a few seconds with a hypnotizing stare, she lowered herself down again and wrapped her tail around his legs, giving him a "Pet me" look. Alan laughed.

"Umm, yeah," Mark said in an attempt to start their conversation again as he stroke Pamela's fur, "what were you going to tell me about Chaletwo?"

"See… oh, hi, Vicky."

What looked like a black, floating head drifted through the ceiling. First it freaked Mark out; then he realized that it must be a Ghost Pokémon.

The head floated down and started circling Mark, observing him with curiosity. The Pokémon had long black hair that hovered behind her in uneven, wavy strands, each tipped with red. Red pearls formed a necklace around her neck, which wasn't connected to a body. Her big, red and yellow eyes twinkled.

"This is my Misdreavus, Victoria or Vicky. Vicky, this is Mark," Alan introduced them.

"Misdree!" squealed the ghost happily. Mark smiled; there was something just funny about a head floating in mid-air looking both creepy and cute.

"Oh, we get no peace…" Alan groaned. Mark turned to see what he was looking at. A Vaporeon, like the one Marge had, was walking into the kitchen. Following it was a green raptor with a bright red belly and dark blue leaves on its hands and head, and a nervous Charmander.

"Um, this is Mist, my Vaporeon, my Grovyle Racko, and Charlie, who was my starter. Guys, this is Mark."

The Grovyle walked right up to him and grinned.

"Grov," said the Pokémon in a greeting of some sort, offering his clawed hand. Mark shook it carefully so he wouldn't cut himself. The Vaporeon started sniffing at his feet like Pamela had, but stopped fairly quickly and curled up on another chair. The Charmander just stood near the wall like he didn't want to get himself noticed.

"You kept your Charmander unevolved?" Mark asked. "Was it because of your father's Charizard, or did he himself just not want to evolve?"

To his surprise, both Alan and Charlie blushed.

"Er… not exactly," Alan muttered. "Charlie… uh, just… show him…"

The lizard took a deep breath, faced Mark and closed his eyes. He immediately took a bright white glow and started growing. In a matter of seconds, he changed into a Charmeleon. He smiled awkwardly and then started glowing again; as quickly as before, he changed back into a Charmander.

Mark stared.

"Wow," he breathed. "Can he become a Charizard like that too?"

Alan nodded, still blushing.

"Was he born like that or what?" Mark asked curiously.

"No," said Alan miserably. "It's a long story… oh, and that's Pikachu."

Mark watched open-mouthed as a well-known yellow rodent stepped inside. Ash Ketchum's Pikachu. Mark couldn't believe it. One of Pikachu's long, black-tipped ears stood straight up, but the other was almost horizontal, indicating slight surprise. He looked between Mark and Alan, seemingly puzzled.

"Pika?" he asked quizzically. Pamela, who had been sleeping on the floor, looked grudgingly up and walked out of the kitchen with her tail in the air. Pikachu sneered after her.

"Erm, Pikachu, this is Mark," said Alan. "Mark, this is Pikachu."

"I _know_ this is Pikachu!" Mark replied, still staring at the yellow mouse Pokémon. "What do you think I am?"

Pikachu stepped closer to him and tilted his head. Mark reached out with his hand, not really thinking; he just wanted to get to touch the most famous Pokémon in the world…

"Mark," Alan whispered, "you smell of Pamela."

Mark didn't realize his point until it was too late. Upon smelling his hand, Pikachu released an electric shock from the red pouches on his cheeks. The electricity coursed through Mark's body; he stiffened up for a second and managed to fall out of his chair.

"Pikachu!" Alan scolded, still unable to contain his laughter. "Shocking people is rude! When are you going to grow out of it?"

Mark crawled back onto his chair. "Ow…" he muttered. "That… hurt…"

"Piii," said Pikachu, scratching his head.

"Sorry about that," said Alan laughing. "He's never liked Meowth, so he wasn't very happy when Dad bought a pet Meowth for me. Then she evolved, and now they're fully-fledged rivals. Hate anything having to do with each other."

"Oh." Mark paused. "What were you saying about Chaletwo, anyway?"

"Oh, yes… see… the four kids had something in common." Alan was slowly getting back to the dark expression he had worn in the Pokémon Center.

"What?" asked Mark.

"They wanted to catch him."

Mark choked on his coke. "What?" he spluttered out. "You go around saying Chaletwo is oh-so-nice, and next thing you tell me is that he kills people for something that isn't even conscious? You're contradicting yourself."

"I said that was the reason _I_ went back to see him all those years and will do the same now. You, on the other hand, apparently like Legendaries, and looked very taken aback when you saw the poster, so you are definitely within the risk-taking group. Can you tell me honestly whether you want to capture Chaletwo? Just whether you want it, irrelevant of the fact that it's impossible and all that?"

Mark considered this question with a knot in his stomach. He couldn't deny it to himself.

"I'd want to catch any Legendary… but I still think it's wrong to do so…"

Alan grinned. "Look who's contradicting himself now."

"It's not the same!" said Mark frustrated. "I'm not contradicting myself; I'm saying that my conscious and subconscious minds don't agree!"

"Well, either way," said Alan, now serious again, "I suggest that you don't watch Chaletwo if you don't want your name on the poster next year."

Mark gulped down some more coke. He really wanted to see Chaletwo. After all, he had thought Suicune was a crazy killer… but Chaletwo was a real one…

"Is there any way I can see Chaletwo without the danger of getting killed?"

"Not really," said Alan. "What kills is supposedly not looking into his eyes, just having him direct his eyes at you. Nobody knows whether Chaletwo can kill through video cameras, and nobody has wanted to test that so it's not aired on TV anymore. But of course… you can probably make yourself a bit safer by concentrating on the risk and not allowing yourself to want to catch him."

Mark still felt uncomfortable about this, but something made him really want to try, however crazy it was – it was like something pushed away his fear and told him that he had to see Chaletwo, no matter the cost.

"I think I'll try that," he heard his mouth say.

"I really, really think you should just forget about it, though," said Alan worriedly.

"Nah, I'll be fine," Mark said, more trying to assure himself than Alan. "I don't even really want to catch him that much. Just see him." He wasn't sure if this was true. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

"Well…" Alan sounded nervous, "good luck."

"Thanks for telling me all this," Mark said. "Oh, yeah," he mentioned, looking at Charlie, who was still standing by the wall, "what is that long story of Charlie?"

"Er…" Alan blushed yet again, "do you know about Molzapart?"

"Yeah?"

"Well… er, see, I guess it all started when I was nine. I had a dream one night where Molzapart was talking to Dad. I didn't hear what Molzapart said, though. I told Dad about the dream, and he told me that he had also dreamt Molzapart, and Molzapart had talked to him. I asked what Molzapart had said, but he told me that it was a secret and he mustn't tell anybody, not even me. So basically, I just forgot about it. Well, then I started my Pokémon journey when I got ten, Dad gave me a Charmander, I named him Charlie and headed out. I caught… erm, a Pokémon, and then one day Charlie evolved. He didn't want to evolve, but we couldn't stop it so he evolved, and… um, well, then I was training with… er, my Pokémon, and… well, Molzapart appeared to me. And he said that… er, he needed my Pokémon for something, and in return he would devolve Charlie. So he did, but Charlie ended up with that ability. So… yeah."

"Huh?" asked Mark, confused. "I didn't get one word of that."

Alan sighed. "You know, Rick? The Cleanwater City Gym Leader? His first Legendaries were Raikou, Entei and Suicune. He made an attempt to clone them and modify their genes, crazily trying to fuse them into one. The embryo apparently died, and Rick… well, threw it out."

Mark nodded. He remembered hearing a vaguer version of this story sometime.

"Well, 'Rainteicune' either wasn't dead or was somehow brought back to life."

"Wait a minute," asked Mark in disbelief, "you're saying you _caught_ a Raikou, Entei and Suicune super-clone fuse?"

"Well," said Alan, blushing yet again, "not super-clone. Just a slightly more powerful clone. And he was just a cub, really," he added. "Well, either way, I took him to Dad – he was really cute and I didn't know what he was – and naturally Dad was freaked. He took him to Gary Oak to do some research on him, but then he was already attached to me, so they asked me just to keep him.

Well, then, a while later, Charlie fainted in a battle. When I took him to the Pokémon Center, he regained consciousness when nobody was with him and started to evolve, and because he was still really weak and hadn't gotten any medicine, he couldn't resist the evolution. Because he didn't want to evolve, he got a bit depressed – well, very depressed – and I started keeping him more and more inside his Pokéball, using Rainteicune instead. When people asked me what he was, I just claimed he was newly discovered and nobody questioned me further because, well, after all I am Ash Ketchum's son. Only time that's done me any good, but anyway…

Then, one day, I was training in the mountains, and I saw Molzapart. He flew to me, and naturally I was really scared and all, but he told me to wait so I stopped. Molzapart explained that Rainteicune was a Legendary even if he was man-made and should be wild – he was pretty grown up then, too – but because I really loved Rainteicune, he offered to devolve Charlie instead. In order to do that, he needed to get energy for his technique Devolution Beam, and this energy had to be gotten from another living creature. He therefore used something called Power Drain on Rainteicune – which must have been horrible; he was in real pain – and then used Devolution Beam on Charlie, but it turned out that because Rainteicune was a modified clone fusion, it didn't have the effect it was supposed to have. Instead, it made his form unstable so that he started to randomly evolve and devolve at the unlikeliest moments, but we didn't find out about that yet since it appeared to have worked.

Anyway, I released Rainteicune, who was very hurt from that Power Drain thing but Molzapart said that he would be all right, and he went away with Molzapart. Then we discovered Charlie's instability, and first I thought it would be even worse, but Charlie started gaining control of it after a few days, and now he can evolve and devolve as he wants. So yeah, that's how it happened."

There was a long silence after this story. Mark, naturally, was amazed. Charlie appeared to have found something very interesting about the wall. Alan just sat there awkwardly, every now and then lifting his glass to drink. After a while, Mark looked at his watch.

"Um, my friend went to the Gym and she must have finished the battle by now… thanks for the story, though. And the coke."

Alan suddenly seemed to snap out of a trance. "Wait!" he said worriedly. "I've told you way too much – I don't even know you – you won't tell anybody about Rainteicune or anything, will you? I might just have saved your life and all."

"Of course I won't," Mark said simply. "Oh, yeah – thanks for the warning too."

Alan smiled. "You're welcome."

"Bye," said Mark as he stood up before leaving the house.

He was deep in thought.


	22. Evolution

**The Pokémon Festival - May 21st: Evolution**

Mark was nervous.

He hadn't told May anything about where he had been; he had just claimed he had been "doing stuff". Her being her, she didn't question him about that. They had then spent the rest of the day reading the posters in the Pokémon Center, deciding which events they wanted to attend over the next four days and signing up for them. Mark couldn't concentrate on anything; all he could think about was why Chaletwo would kill people for wanting to catch him – he couldn't help wondering why only one person each year had wanted to catch a Legendary Pokémon. Even if Alan said it, and even if he was Ash Ketchum's son and all, it just didn't make sense. There was no way anybody who stood in front of Chaletwo with a Pokéball wouldn't want to throw it. And if that wasn't the reason, what was it then?

He also wondered about Alan's claim that Chaletwo "couldn't" be evil. That made no sense either, unless Alan could read Chaletwo's mind. And Mark just couldn't figure out in what other way Alan could have just "known" that Chaletwo wasn't evil. Maybe he was just biased or something… but why would he be biased with a murderous Legendary Pokémon?

Whatever he started thinking, it always ended in a cold shiver running down his spine as he came to some creepy conclusion. He had not had much of an appetite for the rest of the day, and had then had a very hard time sleeping. When he did fall asleep, he dreamt nothing but glowing yellow eyes and the four pearly ghosts of the kids Chaletwo had killed. He felt no better now, as he lay awake in his bed in the Pokémon Center, his mind still revolving around Chaletwo.

There was a knock on the door. "Mark? We have to arrive at the evolution-thingy in an hour. If you're still asleep, wake up already, and if you're just sitting there doing nothing, get a move on."

Mark groaned, slowly getting up. Today there was something that had the cliché name of "The Evolution Solution". It was for trainers with Pokémon who evolved by evolution stones; Mark had spoken to Eevee and he had decided that he was ready for evolution.

After Mark fastened his Pokéball belt around his waist, he hesitated, but then took Eevee's ball. He looked at it for a few seconds. "Go, Eevee," he then said absent-mindedly, dropping the ball onto the floor. The brown furball materialized out of red light and looked up at Mark.

"This is your day," Mark said. Eevee just nodded unsurely.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Mark asked, concerned. "We can still quit."

"I think so," said Eevee nervously. "Does it hurt to evolve?"

Mark recalled his conversation with Charmeleon after evolution. "Well, Charmeleon said it mainly felt amazing… but he did mention a bit of pain at one point, yes. He spoke of it like it was very little, though, so it's probably not that bad."

Eevee thought a bit. "I – I think I'm ready…"

"Are you sure you want to evolve now?" asked Mark softly.

Eevee swallowed, collecting his courage for a second, but then replied: "Yes."

"All right." Mark smiled. "I'm sure it won't be so bad." He paused. "Would you feel better if you got to be out of your Pokéball for a while?"

Eevee nodded slightly; Mark bent down and picked him up. His fur was so soft; Mark realized sadly that he could probably never stroke it again.

"Mark, are you coming?" came May's annoyed voice from outside the room. He adjusted Eevee in his arms so that he could unlock the door, and opened it. May was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Finally," she grumbled, but still took the time to smile at Eevee and stroke his bushy tail. He soon fell asleep in Mark's arms, like he just wanted to be comfortable for his last hour of being an Eevee. Mark felt odd; he kind of wanted to quit suddenly now, but Eevee had made his decision.

"Why aren't you entering Pikachu, anyway?" Mark asked May thoughtfully. "Doesn't Pikachu evolve with a Thunderstone?"

"Yeah," May answered, "but once Pikachu evolves, it loses almost all of its ability to learn new techniques. So in the long run it's a big disadvantage to evolve a Pikachu too soon."

Mark hesitated before daring to ask the next question: "What does he think?"

May shrugged. "I don't know. Haven't asked."

Mark wasn't feeling nosy enough to comment on that further, besides that May had always done him the favor of not asking too much; instead, he just changed the subject. "Are we getting breakfast anywhere?" he asked in spite of himself; he wasn't sure if he'd be able to eat much either way.

"We can pick something up at a fast food restaurant," said May. "Then we have to be at the Green Town Stadium an hour before it actually starts so that you can confirm that you're entering Eevee, and then… well, I don't know what exactly happens then. We'll find out. Somehow Eevee gets evolved, and we can relax for the rest of the day."

"Okay," Mark replied. He shot a glance at Eevee; he was still fast asleep, purring softly.

* * *

"Are you signed up for the Evolution Solution?"

A green-haired woman with butterfly-shaped pink glasses asked this question politely with a smile pasted over her face. Mark was probably one of the first people to arrive; at least no line had formed yet, which wasn't that surprising considering that even with the rule of entrants having to arrive an hour before it actually started, they were very early.

"Yeah, Eevee is entered," he replied through the hole in the glass that separated the gray outside world from the woman's booth. "The name is Mark Greenlet."

The woman turned to her computer and entered something. She peered uninterestedly at the screen, and then stretched out her hand without looking at Mark.

"The entrant, please."

Mark cautiously woke Eevee up. The Pokémon looked noticeably more content than he had before; Mark still felt a little twinge of guilt.

"Are you still positive you want to go on with this?"

"Vi," Eevee yawned, stretching. Mark nodded slowly, taking the Pokéball and touching the Pokémon so that it dissolved into red light. As Eevee was zapped into the ball, Mark realized with sadness that he would never hold Eevee again.

The woman still waited, her chin resting in her palm as the other arm, still outstretched through the hole in the glass barrier, moved impatiently. Mark slowly minimized the Pokéball and put it in her hand; the pale, delicate fingers closed around the sphere and she looked uninterestedly at it before putting it under a tube connected to the computer. She pronouncedly pressed a key, and the ball was sucked up into the end of the tube.

"Here," she said, fetching two buckets from under her desk and handing them to Mark through the glass. He curiously read off one of the buckets:

EVOLUTION STONES – FULL SET

"Why are you giving us the evolution stones?" May snorted from behind Mark. "Are we supposed to throw them at the Pokémon or what?"

"That's the basic idea, yes," said the woman coldly. May shoved Mark aside to speak to the woman directly.

"What? We're supposed to go in there and throw rocks at our own damn Pokémon? That's totally barbaric!"

"You might want to keep your temper a little bit until you've heard the full story," the woman replied calmly. "Your Pokémon will now, with the aid of the Baton Pass technique and some of our special Pokémon, get their defensive abilities strengthened to the point that they wouldn't feel a Snorlax stomping on them. We guarantee that to your Pokémon, this will simply be a game, and everything would be much easier if you would just look at it the same way."

"Oh…" said May blankly. "Well, then it's not that bad, I guess."

"It certainly isn't," the woman stated, somehow not sounding convincing. "Also," she continued as she observed her long, perfect, blood red fingernails, "as a safety precaution, we will keep your other Pokémon until the Evolution Solution is over."

She took out two empty, white Pokéball trays from a big stack beside her and handed them to Mark and May. They took out all their Pokéballs just as a blond-haired boy sped up to them. He ran right into May's back, and she fell over. Mark was reminded of when he himself had met her for the second time, and smiled as May stood up, muttering swear words under her breath.

"Look what you've done!" she snapped at the boy. "My Pokéballs are all over!"

She started picking up the spheres that were rolling around on the ground.

"Sorry," the boy panted. "Mine fell too."

He also started picking up the Pokéballs while May groaned.

"Just great! Now we need to send out all the Pokémon to know whose are whose!"

"No need for it," said the woman in the booth calmly. "We do an ID check on all the Pokémon before giving them back to you, anyway."

"Oh… all right." May took the nearest six balls and placed them in the Pokéball tray, handing it to the woman. She glared nastily at the boy, who was still picking up his Pokéballs, as they continued into the stadium.

The stadium itself was medium-sized and rather plain; it had standard Pokémon arena markings and many rows of seats. There were a few people already there, but not many. Mark and May found themselves good seats, and then just sat and waited as time passed and the seats around them gradually filled up.

This whole thing was a temporary distraction from anything having to do with Chaletwo; however, Eevee had taken his place as what kept haunting Mark as he sat in his seat and waited for the Evolution Solution to start. Maybe he was just paranoid, but if he were subjected to something that was supposed to make him not feel if a rock hit him in the head, he would be very nervous and constantly afraid it would wear off or not work or something. Was Eevee feeling the same? Was he perhaps now wishing that he had just said 'no' when Mark asked him if this was what he really wanted? And what if the stones did hurt him?

But Mark could only wait. It seemed like ages until finally, the crowded stadium silenced and the Pokémon stepped in.

They were all kinds of stone-evolving Pokémon. There weren't that many Eevee seeing as most would rather choose their own evolution, and Mark also noticed that Pikachu were somewhat in a minority – there were too many Ash Ketchum wannabes in the world. Otherwise there were all kinds of stone-evolving Pokémon. Some of them looked a bit nervous; others seemed just excited. Mark discovered one of the Eevee looking up at him; he wasn't sure if it was really his Eevee, but he waved slightly anyway.

"Well, the rules of this game are simple," boomed a voice over the stadium. "You throw the stones at the Pokémon, and once a Pokémon evolves, it will also help throwing the stones that you didn't hit with. The game goes on until all the Pokémon have evolved. The stones will absolutely not hurt your Pokémon, so don't worry! You may now start throwing!"

The crowd excitedly started opening buckets. Mark wasn't going to throw any stones; May opened her bucket, took out a lime green, smooth stone with a yellow lightning bolt shape inside it, and put it in her pocket – admittedly half of the stone was still poking out. All around them, people were throwing evolution stones down to the arena.

The Pokémon scattered, trying to get away from the rain of evolution stones despite knowing that in the end they would get evolved no matter what. All of the stones at first either missed and fell to the ground or hit Pokémon that they didn't affect; the claim that the Pokémon wouldn't be hurt was proven when a Growlithe that got hit by a Thunderstone shook it off easily. The first Pokémon that evolved, however, was a Pikachu that tripped over a Thunderstone lying on the ground. When the rodent came into contact with the mineral, it became enveloped in a white glow as it lay sprawled on the ground and grew, its ears becoming butterfly-shaped, the tail threadlike with a lightning bolt on the end, and the general shape more chubby. The glow faded, and the newly-evolved, orange-colored Raichu stood up. Some people in the crowd cheered.

The Raichu spotted a green, fossil-like stone with a leaf pattern in it, grabbed it and hurled it at a nearby Weepinbell. The Leaf Stone hit, and the green bell-shaped plant Pokémon started glowing white; its body lengthened and a leaf in a kind of a thread grew on its back. When the white light faded away, the Victreebel was upside-down; the Raichu helped turn it over, and then Victreebel smacked its leaf into a bright yellow, flame-like stone so that it hit a reddish brown fox Pokémon with six curly tails – a Vulpix. Mark watched it evolve, growing three more tails as the others straightened, and become a creamy yellow Ninetales.

The Pokémon were evolving faster now. Mark saw an Eevee being hit by a blue stone and evolving into a Vaporeon as the Raichu who first evolved offered a Thunderstone to another Eevee. He saw two Flareon at a glance, but as far as he could see, there were no unevolved Eevee left. His stomach churned uncomfortably; his second Pokémon ever had evolved now. There was no turning back.

A weary, golden starfish Pokémon with a ruby core was finally now hit by a Water Stone; once it had changed into a purple, ten-armed Starmie, there were only two unevolved Pokémon left, both of them being chased by some of the evolved ones. One was a Growlithe who was clearly enjoying himself a lot; the other was a Pikachu who wasn't enjoying it at all – it was in fact giving off flurries of electricity as if to fend the others off. Most of them stopped when they saw this, but some were still following it determinedly.

"That's my Pikachu!" May suddenly realized.

Mark's eyes widened. "The guy who bumped into you must have intended to enter his own Pikachu, and they just used a Pokédex to identify the Pokémon inside… so after the balls got mixed up, he entered your Pikachu without knowing it wasn't his…"

"Pikachu, come up here! It's a misunderstanding!" May called out to her Pokémon. A few people turned around to see what was going on; Pikachu, now the only unevolved Pokémon in the arena as the Growlithe had given up just a second earlier, answered with a quick 'Pika!' and then hurried upwards past the first rows of seats. Once he came to the row that Mark and May were sitting in, he ran quickly past all the feet and finally jumped into his trainer's lap, exhausted. Then he started emitting a bright white glow as Mark noticed that he had accidentally touched the Thunderstone halfway down May's pocket.

Everybody's eyes were on the blue-haired girl whose Pikachu apparently shouldn't have been there but was still somehow evolving now. She just watched, stunned, as Pikachu grew into a Raichu like the first one to evolve.

"Rai," said Raichu, scratching his head.

"Oh," said May blankly. "No more attacks for you, I guess."

May could be so strange. Mark knew that if there was one thing he would not care about if this had happened to _his_ Pokémon was whether it would learn some attacks or not.

"Well," May sighed, "guess this event isn't going to be any longer."

"It looks like all the Pokémon have evolved – and we even got to see an interesting twist at the end! We would like to wish you all to return any evolution stones you may not have used at the entrance. Goodbye, and enjoy the rest of the Pokémon Festival!" came the booming voice.

* * *

"The name is Mark Greenlet – I'd like to get my Pokémon."

The same woman from earlier sternly handed Mark his Pokéball tray. He attached the balls carefully to his belt; then he had to move out of the line. May had already gotten her Pokémon sorted out, and they walked off.

"What did Eevee evolve into, anyway?" May asked curiously.

"Didn't check yet," Mark admitted, blushing. He stopped and took out Eevee's Pokéball. He took a deep breath.

"Go."

Mark dropped the ball. A beam of red light shot out of it and took shape into something with a catlike head, long rabbit-like ears…

And covered in spikes.

* * *

**Later-Day Author's Note:** Awkwardly, after this chapter was posted it turned out the sentence "And covered in spikes" didn't make everyone think of Jolteon. This was not intended to be a cliffhanger or an implication that he became some kind of made-up Eeveelution, just an attempt at a dramatic description of the fact he evolved into a Jolteon. I apologize for not making this properly clear in the actual text of the chapter.


	23. The Attack Approval

**The Pokémon Festival – May 22nd: The Attack Approval**

"Mark! Wake up already if you want to train for the Attack Approval before it starts!"

He hadn't been sleeping, actually. He had been lying in his bed, staring into the ceiling and thinking. He had dreamt about Chaletwo, with Eevee and May's Pikachu mixed in, between waking up abruptly. Usually the last thing he remembered before waking up was a pair of glowing, yellow eyes – Chaletwo's, presumably. If only he knew what it meant…

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The Attack Approval. That was something May was very enthusiastic about; she had picked up a booklet on it on their first day in Green Town, and according to it, the contestants would battle judges and were supposed to basically show their ability to create techniques in battle. If they did it well enough, they would get a license for being allowed to use such moves in the Pokémon League. Mark was really just entering it in hopes of getting an official permission to use Gyarados's powerful attack in the League; the sea monster's color had now returned to normal and he seemed to be at full power, but it had taken him a while after having used the attack three times in a row.

Mark stood up and quietly dressed; then he opened the door to see that May had given up waiting for him. He sighed and decided just to go and train by himself.

As he exited the Pokémon Center and walked slowly out of the city, he looked around for some sort of a pool of water which Gyarados could be released into. It was very grassy around Green Town. A huge forest called Ruxido loomed in the west and Mark knew that the last Gym of Ouen was located in the south somewhere. He wandered off towards Ruxido, figuring that he could just as well go there as somewhere else.

After about ten minutes of walking aimlessly around in the woods – making carefully sure, of course, to know where the exit was – Mark still found himself in a completely dry forest. Sighing, he sat down on a rock to think.

A sound was heard. Mark jumped, his heart beating against his ribcage as he stared intensely at the spot where the sound came from.

"Leee…" came a small squeal. A small, curious white head poked out from behind a tree. The head looked kind of alien-like; it would have reminded Mark of an Eevee if it hadn't been for the fact that it had absolutely no visible features except for two big, cute, ruby red eyes that were pointed at him in a hypnotizing stare.

Mark sat still, and the Pokémon stepped out to observe him better. It was about the size and shape of an Espeon apart from having a bigger head; the limbs were slender and catlike. The whole body was pure white, covered in fine hairs, with absolutely no markings or special features at all. Behind it, the creature whipped an incredibly flexible, thin tail back and forth like a pendulum; left, right, left, right, left, right…

Ten seconds or so passed before Mark came back to his senses and realized that the Pokémon had just attacked him with Hypnosis. He blinked a few times; the creature, which still stood in the same spot, stared at him without blinking. There was something very creepy about it.

Mark slowly took out his Pokédex and pointed it at the Pokémon. A beep was heard.

"Leta, plain Pokémon," said the Pokédex electronically. "Its tail has no bones in it and is very flexible. It is usually shy and tends to use its Hypnosis attack to lull its opponent to sleep instead of fighting."

Mark nodded and closed his Pokédex. He stood slowly up and grabbed a Pokéball.

"Go, Jolteon! Paralyze it with a Thunder Wave!"

Mark had checked Jolteon in the Pokédex the day before, just after seeing what Eevee had evolved into. In addition to the evolution, he had gained the ability to use Thunder Wave and Bite.

The yellow Electric Pokémon sprang out of the Pokéball. The long spikes he had in place of fur crackled with electricity, and when he came down on the ground, he sent a flurry of sparks flying at the Leta. The terrified Pokémon attempted a run for it, but its muscles stiffened up before it could get away.

"Now, Jolteon, use a Bite!"

Jolteon nodded and sank his small but sharp fangs into the Leta's tail. It cried out in pain and managed with difficulty to raise its paw and attempt to scratch Jolteon, but just hurt itself on the spikes. Mark felt a bit sorry for it, but he shook it off; he was going to catch it.

Slowly, he reached for an empty Pokéball.

"LEEE!" screamed the Leta. Mark understood it as some kind of a call for help.

"Leeee," came a chorus of deeper but similar cries from deep inside the forest. The parents were answering. And the relatives. And the friends.

Mark stopped dead, but then threw the Pokéball quickly, his heart beating hard. The immobile Pokémon was sucked into it, it wobbled once, twice, thrice…

As the ball stilled with a small ping, a deafening roar sounded. Mark quickly recalled the unnerved Jolteon and picked up the Pokéball containing Leta. Meanwhile, a whole herd of large, shining beasts emerged from behind the trees and surrounded him.

They were large, resembling horses in size, but had paws with very large, intimidating black claws. Like Leta, they had fine, white fur, but their backs and tails were covered in shiny, metallic armor. In comparison to the rather long neck, the rounded head seemed small; in each head, two red eyes like Leta's glinted. But the most noticeable feature of these Pokémon was definitely the metal mask that covered the face. It consisted of three two-foot-long blades: one started between the eyes and continued upwards past the forehead, bending slightly backwards; the other two covered the cheeks, grew below the eyes and then continued on backwards, bending inwards. A kind of spike grew upwards out of each of those two blades slightly behind the eyes, its length varying between the individuals; on some of them it stood pretty straight up, but on others it started off growing backwards but then started bending forward. The three blades met in the muzzle, which was like a rounded chunk of metal.

The Pokémon stood perfectly still while Mark stared terrified at them. Some scratched the soil impatiently while shooting glances at each other. Mark just stood there, the Pokéball still clutched in his hand, staring at the monsters.

"What is this?" asked one of the Pokémon's voices from the back; it was noticeably one of the deeper ones. A few of the Pokémon stepped aside to make room for the asker.

Mark gasped at the sight of the Pokémon that stepped forward. It was a bit different from the rest – its armor was black like the claws and its fur had a bluish tint, appearing to sparkle slightly. It was a Shiny, and also appeared to be the leader.

"This human caught Hope," said a voice that sounded female. "We must do something."

The Shiny stared at Mark and the Pokéball in his hand for a while.

"Leave it," he finally said, turning around. "She's old enough to be caught, and if she was not strong enough to prevent this, she belongs to him now."

"Vigor, she is your daughter!" the female protested.

The leader turned his head slowly. "She doesn't have the Shine."

"But she's your daughter! She's _my_ daughter!" screamed the female as Vigor turned and started walking sadly away. He ignored her, and hesitating, the herd followed him. The mother turned desperately to glance at the Pokéball in Mark's hand, but then followed the herd.

Mark, who had been frozen with fear since the Pokémon came, quickly whipped out his Pokédex.

"Letaligon, metallic Pokémon. They are an unusual species in that Shinies are unusually common. They live in groups of around thirty, each with one shiny leader. The armor on their bodies is very strong, but light as well."

He closed the device. He realized that the right thing to do would probably be to release the Leta and let her go back to her mother, but even though he didn't want to admit it, the greedy part of him just wanted a new Pokémon. He made up some quick excuse about her father being mean, and decided to keep her.

"Leta, go."

The Pokémon came out of the ball, looking around.

"Are they gone?" she asked. Mark nodded.

"Can I come back here when you've made me strong?" She was staring in the direction that the herd had gone off to, clearly upset about her father and determined to prove herself to him.

Mark nodded again. "Yes, you can." He paused, but then added: "Can you do me a favor? Do you know a lake or something here?"

Leta smiled and disappeared behind some trees to the left. Mark followed, laughing.

* * *

"Your mother called you Hope…" Mark said curiously to Leta as she bent down to drink. She had taken him to a clearing in which there was a largish pond; he had sent out his other Pokémon too and they were now drinking or just relaxing and stretching. "Is that your name?"

"Pokémon names don't work like human names," Scyther commented before Leta had the chance to answer. "In our language, any sound you make is strictly connected to a meaning, which isn't the most comfortable way to have one special name that everybody is supposed to know you as. We introduce ourselves as members of our species, and then we give each other nicknames as we see fit."

"Oh." Mark paused as Scyther lapped up some more water. "It doesn't really make any sense, but it still does. I mean, I've always known that you use the word Trainer as a name when referring to your own trainers, so I kinda should've figured that if you used names for each other you'd probably also use names for humans… but somehow I've never thought of it that way."

Scyther chuckled. "We don't mind just being referred to by the name of our species. Especially if we're used to that. You can just keep up what you're doing now; you're not offending us."

Mark smiled. "Well, that's good."

"I wouldn't want you to call me that anyway," Leta said quietly. Mark nodded.

"Er, well, guys, anyway, what I originally came here with you for was training for the Attack Approval that's going to be…" he looked at his watch, "in approximately forty-five minutes. Basically, we're supposed to battle some judges and show off our creative skills. Gyarados, you were what I really had in mind…"

Gyarados just nodded.

"Does your special attack have a name?"

"I call it Dragon Beam," the sea monster replied.

"How did you learn it?" Mark asked curiously.

"I don't know," Gyarados answered dully. "I just could do it after I evolved."

Mark was still puzzled about it, but he was at least positive that Gyarados weren't supposed to be able to use anything that resembled a red laser beam that could chase the target, freeze, burn, paralyze and defeat a Legendary in one hit.

"Oh – why do you stay gray when you've used it often?" Mark asked, remembering what he had been intending to ask.

"Don't know that either," Gyarados just said. "But my strength always comes back, even if it takes a while. I experimented a lot with it in the Lake of Purity."

"Well, at least, then I'll tell you to use Dragon Beam when I want you to use it," Mark concluded. "Guys, any of you got anything special to show off?"

The Pokémon looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Well," Mark said, shrugging, "if you think of something, you'll use it. All right?"

His Pokémon nodded in agreement; Mark seemed to notice Dragonair giving him a look.

"Great." Mark looked at his watch. "We'd better get going, I guess."

* * *

"Hi, Mark!"

Mark turned around. It was Alan, who was standing just outside his house.

"Oh, hi."

"You going to the Attack Approval?" Alan questioned. "It's not starting yet. Dad overslept, and he's one of the judges, so he's getting ready now."

"Oh." Mark paused. "Er… are you leaving soon? You came out of the house…"

"Well…" Alan muttered. "I like to be a bit ahead of him. Entering with him is kinda embarrassing."

Mark nodded. "Well, then we can go now."

Alan shrugged and they started walking towards the Stadium.

"How does the Attack Approval function, anyway, if you get your technique-creating license?" Mark asked.

"Well, the judges add a thingy to your Trainer card…"

"Trainer card?" Mark stopped abruptly. "It's added on your trainer card?"

Alan looked puzzled at him. "Yes, of course. What else?"

"But what if…" Mark twiddled his thumbs nervously. "What if you didn't have one?"

Alan responded with a rush of laughter. "Wait, you're serious?" he then added worriedly.

"Erm…" Mark replied, blushing. "Kind of."

"But you have Pokémon!" Alan said in disbelief.

"Yeah… I found Charmander outside, bought a Pokédex and set off… didn't remember I had to get a license…" Mark felt horribly awkward, but he couldn't train illegally forever.

Alan stopped to think for a moment. Then he said: "Come. Let's speak to Dad."

Mark followed him doubtfully back into the house, only to meet the famous Ash Ketchum in the doorway.

Mark was stunned for a second. He stared at the dark-haired man who looked like an adult version of Alan. What he found funny was that every time he had seen Ash on TV, he had looked very tidy and formal. Right now he was just wearing rather normal, boring clothes, looking tired and clearly having had absolutely no time to comb his hair, which all stood on end. The yellow mouse Pokémon stood just inside, seemingly saying goodbye.

Mark grabbed the man's hand and shook it nervously. "Mr.… Mr. Ketchum… delighted to meet you… err… um… eh…"

"Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of Alan's?" Ash asked, smiling slightly.

"Not a friend exactly… we met the other day…"

"Well," Alan interrupted, "basically, he's an illegal trainer and needs a license."

Mark looked nervously at him, worried that this had been way too bluntly put, but Ash just peered thoughtfully at Mark.

"Send out your Pokémon, please."

Mark doubtfully reached for his Pokéballs, sending out his non-aquatic Pokémon. Charmeleon glared at Scyther, but he ignored it. "I have a Gyarados too," Mark said.

"My name is Ash Ketchum," Ash addressed the Pokémon. "You might have heard of me."

Mark's Pokémon nodded in agreement; Charmeleon, however, looked him in the eyes.

"Heard of you?" he said with a small smile.

"Oh!" Ash's expression brightened. "Nice to see you all evolved and grown-up! I gave you to Rick's brother, though, didn't I? Did he trade you?"

Charmeleon shrugged. "Long story."

"Alan," Ash turned to his son, "that's Charlie's younger brother! Did you know that?"

"No," Alan replied, looking at Mark. "It's a small world, eh?"

"Well, anyway," Ash continued before Mark had the chance to answer, directing his next question at Mark's Pokémon, "what do you honestly think of your trainer?"

"He's nice," Charmeleon answered. "A little foolish, though…" He shot a glance at Scyther and then at Mark, who just blushed.

"He is very kind and cares about us," said Sandslash. "Not the best battler, but a good person."

"He saved my life," said Jolteon quietly.

"Mine too," Charmeleon added.

"He's not bad," Dragonair just said.

"I don't know what he's like, he just caught me earlier," said Leta.

"And you?" Ash inquired, turning to Scyther.

The mantis took his time to answer. He looked into Ash's eyes for a long while, and then at Mark.

"I came with him," he then began slowly. "I needed him… something to give me a purpose after leaving behind all that I ever loved… something to make life worth living so I wouldn't lose all sanity I had left and slit my own throat…"

He raised his scythe in front of his face, staring at his own reflection in the shiny surface.

"I guess," he finished softly, "that he saved my life too."

Ash looked at Mark in silence for a few seconds, but then said: "Your Pokémon have judged. You deserve to be a Pokémon trainer. May I have your Pokédex, please?"

Mark handed it to Ash, and he gestured to Pikachu, who darted into the house before returning, holding some kind of a small, box-like device that was around two thirds of his own size. He gave it to Ash, who scratched Pikachu in return before somehow attaching Mark's Pokédex to the device and pressing a few buttons on both. A small card, not unlike a credit card, popped out from a slot on the box's side.

"Done," said Ash, handing the card to Mark. He looked at it; it had his name, that horrible photo, little icons of his badges, and a bit of other information. On the back were empty spaces for showing his placements in various competitions – such as the Attack Approval.

"Thank you," Mark said gratefully.

"Thank your Pokémon," said Ash and smiled.

"Um, Dad? Shouldn't we get going?" Alan inserted. Ash quickly looked at his watch.

"Yes, we should," he replied, immediately starting to walk quickly down the street. Mark and Alan ran after him.

* * *

Mark waited in a line. He had been very late, of course; therefore he got the honours of being at the very end of the line. There were three matches going on at a time, thankfully, so it wouldn't be too long to wait.

May had, of course, arrived before him, and was currently battling fiercely with her female Lapras against a small, green fairy with two roses, one blue and one reddish pink, on what could be called its hands. The judge, who was a blond-haired woman, commanded her Pokémon to use a Leech Seed.

"Rooseeeelia," the fairy chanted, swaying slightly to the sides before pointing its roses straight forward and firing two dark green, sharp seeds out of their middles. The seeds embedded themselves into Lapras's skin; she let out a whimper as they sprouted roots which dug into her hide and started absorbing her energy. Two vines extended out of the seeds and crawled along the ground to the Roselia; it lowered its arms down and allowed the vines to twist and curl around them.

"Lapras, use an Ice Beam to get rid of it," May commanded. The sea turtle swung her head back, forming an icy blue orb in her mouth before firing a blast of ice crystals at the long vines that now connected the two battlers.

"Roselia, Sunny Day!" said the judge quickly, and Roselia raised its roses into the air, looking at the sky while emitting a sweet note. Incredibly, the blanket of clouds high above ripped apart to reveal a gap through which intense sunlight shone, casting a golden aura on the battle between the turtle and the fairy.

"And now, Solarbeam!" the judge ordered, her Roselia raising both of its roses into the air again. Two golden orbs of light grew in the middle of each rose in a matter of seconds; then the fairy, with a shrill cry, pointed them down at the frost-covered vines from the Leech Seed. Burning hot sunlight blasted at the ice in a bright beam, melting it instantly but leaving the vines mostly unharmed. Lapras seemed to be getting weaker by now, while Roselia was still brimming with energy.

"Lapras, use Surf, and be ready." May said these words with uttermost determination, staring at the cute, feminine fairy with disdain. Her Lapras obeyed the command, spewing out a rather weakish-looking wave of water which rushed at Roselia.

"Ice Beam!" May shouted as soon as the water reached the fairy, who didn't appear to be very hurt by it. Lapras fired another beam of ice towards the Roselia; it braced itself, but its weak, plant-like structure wouldn't last long against an Ice Pokémon. The Ice Beam, however, had another effect, which might have been what May had been aiming for: it froze the water flowing past the Roselia, resulting in her getting completely stuck in a sheet of ice. The fairy moaned; its trainer nodded, looking at May, before removing a Pokéball from her waist.

"Roselia, return," she announced, recalling the fairy. "Go, Arcanine!"

She threw forth a new ball; out of it came a huge, orange, striped dog with a thick creamy mane and tail. Mark remembered it as one of the Pokémon the first junior trainer in Rick's Gym had owned; this one, however, seemed nowhere near as aggressive and just stood gracefully still, looking its opponent in the eye, while the damaged vines of the Leech Seed found its feet and wrapped around them.

"Lapras, Surf!" May said quickly.

"Arcanine, Overheat," the judge countered. May's turtle was, unfortunately for her, not as fast as the great dog, and the Arcanine started glowing with a hellish red aura before opening its fanged mouth and releasing a big blast of flames. The fire was still intensified by the sun, which was still shining through the gap in the clouds that Roselia had created earlier, and Lapras screeched in a high-pitched voice before dropping weakly down.

"Come on!" May hissed. Her Pokémon rose with difficulty, spurting out a wave of water; the stream hissed as it came into contact with Arcanine's blazing fur. The dog was panting; the attack it had used earlier had clearly used a lot of energy. Once the water attack dissolved, the dog shook itself violently with a small bark.

"Surf again!" May ordered, but as Lapras prepared to send another wave of water crashing at Arcanine, the judge issued another command:

"Extremespeed!"

Her Arcanine leant backwards with a growl, and then leapt at Lapras, turning into a blur of cream, black and orange in the air for a split second due to its lightning speed, but then ramming powerfully into Lapras and knocking her unconscious.

"Lapras! Lapras!" May gritted her teeth as she prodded her Pokémon's body with her foot. The turtle was still limp, and May swore loudly before recalling her Pokémon.

"You have passed," said the judge shortly. "Give your Trainer Card to the guys over there." She pointed at a desk near the entrance. "Next!"

May walked past Mark on the way out, still fussing.

"You weren't supposed to win, you know," Mark reminded her. "I mean, they're professionals. I doubt they're going to lose a single battle today."

"Oh, shut up, Mark," she snapped rudely. He shrugged and turned his attention back to the battles, discovering that there was only one boy before him in line. The judge on the right, an elderly man, was just finishing his battle with a girl, and the boy went to him. Mark felt odd being the next person to go; his stomach fluttered uncomfortably. Just a few meters away from him stood Ash's opponent, a very nervous, small boy; the two of them appeared to be finishing their battle, and indeed, soon enough the boy recalled his Pokémon and walked, beaming, towards the desk. Mark took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"Hi, Mark," said Ash brightly. "Have you decided which Pokémon you want to use?"

Mark hadn't, but he still nodded, making a quick decision to leave Jolteon out. He took out his Pokédex and made the change.

"You said you had a Gyarados, didn't you?" Ash questioned. "Are you going to use it?"

Mark nodded; Ash took a little remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. The floor on the right side between them started sinking down and then moved to the side under the rest of the floor, revealing a pool of water.

"Oh, yeah… I should most likely make it clear that your objective is not to win the battle," Ash added. "Just battle with as much style and creative use of your Pokémon's abilities as you can."

"You won't be using your strongest Pokémon, will you?" asked Mark nervously. Ash chuckled.

"Of course not. We don't want your Pokémon to go down before you can display anything worth seeing. We're using Pokémon around level 50 – it tests you better to have you battle against something stronger."

"Oh… I see," Mark just said.

"All right…" Ash began. "Six on six, recalled Pokémon is a defeated Pokémon."

He smiled slightly and took out a Pokéball.

"Go, Breloom!"

The ball opened, releasing a sphere of red energy that formed into a very weird Pokémon resembling a kangaroo in shape. Its lower body was green, but the long tail, the neck, the petal-like collar and the rounded head were beige in color. On the top of its head was a growth, resembling a mushroom, and finally it had blood red claws on its oddly tucked-in arms and the more powerful, bouncy feet.

Mark figured that this Pokémon had to be a Grass type, and reached for Charmeleon's Pokéball.

"Go! Flamethrower!"

"Breloom, dodge it and then put it to sleep with a Spore attack!"

Charmeleon, as soon as he materialized from the ball, took a deep breath and blew out a blast of fire. Breloom, crying out in a high-pitched voice, jumped skillfully out of the way and one of the four round seeds at the end of its tail started glowing with a bright green aura. Swinging its tail powerfully forward, the kangaroo sent a cloud of sparkly green powder at Charmeleon.

"Don't inhale it!" Mark shouted stupidly, but the lizard's eyelids started to drop and he collapsed within five seconds.

"Great job, Breloom," Ash cheered. "Use a Leech Seed while it can't dodge, and then wait for it to wake up."

"Charmeleon!" Mark screamed, but he couldn't hear anything through the unnatural sleep. Meanwhile, the kangaroo fired two parasitic seeds like the ones Roselia had used against May's Lapras, and they sprouted roots that in no time embedded themselves into Charmeleon's skin. Two vines grew from the seeds and wrapped around Breloom's legs. Mark knew that the seeds were sucking energy from Charmeleon to Breloom, but he couldn't do anything about it…

The lizard stirred and heavily opened an eye. Ash immediately gave the next order:

"Mind Reader, now!"

The kangaroo's eyes glowed red as it fixed its glare on Charmeleon while he rose up; it didn't appear to do anything. He fired silky flames towards Breloom, but it again jumped out of the way.

"Use a Dynamicpunch!" Ash cried out.

"Dodge it!" Mark countered. Charmeleon growled as he jumped up, but the kangaroo, its eyes still glowing, jumped up too. In mid-air, its arm sprang out and struck Charmeleon in the face. He was thrown backwards and crashed dizzily into the ground; Breloom landed on its feet.

"Charmeleon, Flamethrower!" Mark commanded desperately. Charmeleon rose slowly up, but his gaze was unfocused and he dropped down again.

Mark bit his lip, but then remembered that he was supposed to be thinking up new techniques. He wondered for a second; then the part of him that paid attention in Battle Strategies took control of his mouth.

"Rage!"

Charmeleon stood up again and rushed towards Breloom. The Rage attack would turn pain into power, and was just about Charmeleon's only chance. What was more was that this would give Mark time to think over his situation.

While Charmeleon madly slashed and bit the kangaroo while steadily having his energy drained by the parasitic seeds, Mark thought as quickly as he could. May had also gotten Leech Seed used against her; she had gotten rid of it with…

"Charmeleon," Mark shouted, "attack the Leech Seed's vines!"

Mark knew that once Rage was used, its power would be lost if another attack was ordered; therefore he didn't want to tell him to use Flamethrower. The Rage attack had to be getting very powerful now, anyway.

Charmeleon started scratching and biting the vines that linked him to his opponent. Ash told Breloom to use a Stun Spore, realizing that it would not help to attack Charmeleon while any pain would just power up his attacks, but Charmeleon wasn't affected a lot by the paralysis; the sheer power he had gained through the Rage attack was enough to move his limbs despite the stiffening powder that he had breathed in. Finally, he managed to hack through one of the vines, but having focused his attention on the Leech Seed for too long, Charmeleon wasn't aware that Breloom was at full health by now and one more order from Ash, this time a Mach Punch, brought him down.

"Return," Mark muttered. He thought for a bit; the Breloom seemed like a part-Fighting type since it could use all those punches. He vaguely remembered that kicks and punches did not harm Bug Pokémon a lot… or ones that could fly. Nor did Grass attacks.

He smiled. "Scyther, do it!"

"Breloom, Leech Seed!" Ash ordered.

Just as Breloom fired two more seeds, Scyther zoomed out of the way. Before Breloom was able to attack, the mantis's scythes started glowing faintly green, and he dashed at the kangaroo to slash it across the chest. It cried out, blood leaking from the gash.

"Breloom, are you all right?" Ash asked concernedly. The Pokémon nodded determinedly.

"Great. Mind Reader!" he roared, his Pokémon's eyes turning bright red as Scyther returned to slash it again. This time he cut a gash on its shoulder; the kangaroo winced slightly, but nothing more.

"Leech Seed!" Ash then shouted, and Breloom fired two seeds. They hit dead-on this time, despite that Scyther was still moving. Mark suddenly remembered that Mind Reader caused the next attack to hit no matter what.

The two seeds sprouted roots and grew into Scyther's armor, but as the vines started growing out of them to connect with Breloom, Scyther simply cut them in two with a swipe of his scythe. He prepared to attack Breloom again; Ash meanwhile gave another command:

"Strength!"

Mark suddenly got an idea, and blurted out: "Scyther, wait! Stay there and defend yourself!"

The mantis looked at him, seeming somewhat puzzled, but still did has Mark said, leant backwards and held his scythes out in front of him as the kangaroo came rushing towards him. Just as Breloom was almost within Scyther's reach, Mark made the next order.

"Fury Cutter! Slash, slash, slash! Quick!"

Scyther's super-fast reflexes enabled him to attack immediately. His scythes glowed green again and he slashed Breloom three times: once with the left scythe, once with the right one and once with both. The kangaroo was thrown backwards, bleeding in a few places. Ash hurriedly recalled it and took out another ball as Mark smiled to Scyther.

"Go, Graveler!"

Ash sent out a big, rugged rock-like Pokémon. Its hide was a dark brownish gray; the body was round with four small, bulgy hands and two stubby feet.

"Okay, Scyther…" Mark inhaled deeply. "Try a Fury Cutter."

The mantis dashed immediately towards the rock Pokémon, his scythes glowing. Ash didn't attempt to order his Pokémon to dodge it; it probably wasn't made for trying. Scyther struck the Graveler with his scythe, barely scratching the rock-like hide at all.

"Rock Tomb!" Ash ordered, and his Pokémon slowly raised its arms. At the same time, the ground in a circle around Scyther seemed to explode upwards and the mantis was buried under rocks, ranging from large chunks to fine dust. He broke out of it in a few seconds despite being severely bruised; unfortunately he had lost his concentration and the glow on his scythes had faded away. Mark took out his Pokéball and recalled his Pokémon; Scyther didn't stand a chance.

"That was the right thing to do," Ash commented. "You know when your Pokémon would only get unnecessarily hurt."

Mark just smiled slightly and blushed. After a short pause, he took out Gyarados's Pokéball.

"Go!"

The sea monster emerged in the pool and apparently did not decide to roar as he usually did when entering battle. His little red eyes just fixed on Graveler and watched.

"Defense Curl," Ash told his Graveler. The rock curled up into a tight ball, tucking its arms and legs into its body. Mark hesitated, wondering if Ash was about to try to surprise him.

"Graveler, Rollout!" Ash commanded, and his Pokémon started rolling slowly towards the pool, picking up speed as it went. When it came to the bank, it suddenly bounced upwards and rammed into Gyarados's head before landing on the other side and rolling a bit on.

"Gyarados, Dive!" Mark shouted, thinking as quickly as he could. Rollout got more powerful each time it was used, he seemed to recall, so it would be best to try and dodge the attack. The sea monster dove into the pool, avoiding the rock Pokémon as it rolled back with more force than before. After missing Gyarados, the Graveler started rolling back again, but as it was in the air flying over the pool, Gyarados's shape rose from the surface. He seemed like a figure made of water as he hit right into the Graveler's body and threw it aside; then the water illusion faded and his real colors were revealed again. Graveler, hit hard by the blow, rose slowly up, but Gyarados breathed out a blast of crimson flames on his own accord and Graveler cried out before falling unconscious when the dragon flames enveloped its body.

"Return, Graveler," Ash said, holding forward the Pokéball to recall the rock Pokémon. "Manectric, do it."

Ash sent out a dog-like Pokémon. It was blue and yellow with spiky fur and a very odd, pointed mane on its head. Everything about it looked like an Electric Pokémon, so Mark didn't get his hopes up for Gyarados; however, nothing said he couldn't go out with a bang.

"Gyarados," Mark shouted, "Dragon Beam!"

Ash seemed to be about to command Manectric to attack, but paused after hearing the command, most likely wanting to see what Mark was about to pull out of his sleeve. Gyarados closed his eyes with a low growl, and his colors started fading away. Manectric watched alertly, seemingly ready to attempt to dodge. Then, when Gyarados's body had turned completely grayscale, his eyes opened and fired a red beam.

Manectric attempted to leap out of the way, but the beam followed easily. Ash looked at it with clear astonishment. As the beam hit the dog, it was sent flying backwards, landing harshly by its trainer's side.

"Do you want to be recalled?" Ash asked concernedly. The Pokémon shook its head and growled, standing up again.

"Thunderbolt, then."

Manectric jerked its head upwards and howled as its fur started sparkling with electricity. Then it fired a bolt of lightning that struck Gyarados as he was still recharging his energy. With a terrible roar, the sea monster collapsed and didn't get up again.

"Gyarados, return," Mark said softly. "Go, Sandslash!"

The pangolin emerged from the Pokéball and observed his opponent.

"Sandslash, Earthquake!"

"Manectric, Crunch!"

Manectric was faster than Sandslash, jumped at him and bared its fangs. Sandslash defensively slashed the dog across the face, but Manectric aggressively locked its jaws around Sandslash's front paw. Sandslash sank his other claws into Manectric's hind leg and as the dog yelped in pain, it released him and staggered backwards. Sandslash grabbed the opportunity and slammed his weight into the ground, causing the eerie Earthquake ripple to reach Manectric and take the Electric Pokémon down. The dog howled in pain and then dropped weakly to the ground.

"Return, Manectric," Ash said, recalling his Pokémon. "You did a good job."

Ash stopped to think for a second, but then sent out his next Pokémon.

"Go, Hitmontop!"

Hitmontop was an odd creature – it balanced upside-down on its cone-shaped head, with its clawed legs and spiked tail sticking out into the air and its arms held in a boxing position. Its head also had funny hair-like flaps on either side of it. Despite not looking very muscular, Mark knew it was a Fighting Pokémon like its relatives Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, and that family of Pokémon was famous for having quite a bit more muscular strength than could be seen on the outside.

Mark nervously looked at Sandslash, whose injured front paw was still bleeding. He wouldn't exactly last very long, and he wasn't very fast either. Mark wondered if he should switch. The Pokémon he had left were Dragonair and Leta. Leta was a Normal type so that was out of the question, but Dragonair wouldn't do so bad…

"All right, Sandslash, return."

Mark tried to recall his Pokémon, but Sandslash moved out of the beam's way and smashed his paws into the ground again. A second Earthquake attack formed, shaking the Hitmontop badly as the waves hit it.

"Hitmontop, Triple Kick!" Ash commanded quickly, his Pokémon instantly starting to spin around like a top. Still spinning, it rushed at Sandslash and delivered three blows to his head – one with each foot and one with the tail. The pangolin looked unconscious, but while Hitmontop was slowing down, Sandslash suddenly extended his claws and delivered a powerful slash. Hitmontop cried out in pain and somehow managed to leap backwards while still balancing on its head.

"All right, Sandslash… I guess you want to go on?"

Sandslash nodded determinedly.

"Hitmontop, Revenge attack!"

From Hitmontop's scratches, red started spreading out and taking over the Pokémon's body. Mark thought it was blood at first, but it was too bright red and was more like a glow than a liquid. Once it was completely red, it rushed into Sandslash again. The pangolin was thrown backwards by the force of the attack, but still stood up again. Mark was amazed; he had greatly underestimated Sandslash when he had intended to recall him earlier.

"Now, use a Quick Attack!" Ash ordered, and the Fighting Pokémon darted in a blur towards Sandslash again. The blow knocked the pangolin out before he could do anything to protect himself.

"Return, Sandslash," Mark said softly. "You did a great job."

Slowly, he picked Dragonair's Pokéball and threw it into the arena. The blue snake-like dragon formed on the ground.

"Give me another good Triple Kick now," Ash said.

"Dragonair, try to dodge!" Mark quickly yelled.

Hitmontop spun towards Dragonair and prepared to perform the attack it had used on Sandslash earlier; Dragonair twisted his body to avoid the two kicks from the legs, but the tail hit him and knocked him down. The dragon recovered quickly as Hitmontop got out of the way of a possible counterattack, but all of a sudden, startling both Mark and Ash, Dragonair's body burst out in flames. Mark panicked for a second, but the fire died down quickly and Dragonair looked normal.

"Dragonair," Mark started hesitatingly, "try a…"

The dragon interrupted by breathing a cloud of flames into the air. Mark looked at him, puzzled, having no idea what just happened. He quickly glanced at Ash; he was nodding absent-mindedly to himself while examining Dragonair.

"Hitmontop… try a Rolling Kick," Ash then ordered thoughtfully. His Pokémon curled itself into a knot of sorts and rolled towards Dragonair at high speed. The dragon blasted out fire, hitting Hitmontop dead-on; the fighter screamed in pain, but nonetheless performed the attack, delivering a sharp kick to Dragonair's snout before dropping down, exhausted. Ash quietly recalled it.

"Mightyena, do it!"

Out of his next Pokéball came a big, wolf-like Pokémon. Its body had gray, fine fur; however, its back was additionally coated with thicker, pitch-black hairs, along with some black markings on its face and its legs. The canine Pokémon growled quietly at Dragonair.

"Crunch!" Ash commanded, his Pokémon leaping towards the snake-like dragon and baring its fangs. Dragonair countered with another fire attack – Mark was still very confused as to how he could use them – and Mightyena, yelping in pain, stumbled backwards without actually coming into contact with Dragonair.

"Try a Shadow Ball," Ash suggested, his Pokémon leaning slightly backwards. A jet-black orb of shadow started forming in front of Mightyena, rapidly growing in size. Then the Pokémon barked sharply and the orb shot towards Dragonair. He was hit by it and thrown backwards; the dragon appeared to be shivering as he rose up again with difficulty.

"Use a Howl," Ash ordered, and Mightyena raised its head into the air before letting out a long, eerie howl. Mark really had no idea what was up with Dragonair suddenly using Fire attacks and was a bit too confused to be able to give proper instructions to his Pokémon; he just watched Dragonair breathe a long silky tongue of fire which the wolf avoided without much effort.

"Another Shadow Ball, now, and make it count!" Ash shouted to his Mightyena. It leant backwards again, but this time it was much faster charging up a much bigger orb. It was fired straight at the dragon and he was sent flying back towards Mark. He finally got up again after straining for a few seconds, and then…

He flew.

Dragonair just got a strange expression and floated elegantly into the air, his sleek, snake-like body moving as if he were swimming. He seemed astonished at his own accomplishment for a second; then he appeared to snap out of a trance and focused on Mightyena again.

"Shadow Ball!" Ash shouted. Mightyena reared up, forming a big orb of shadow in a matter of seconds, and sending it at the dragon. Dragonair retaliated with another Fire attack, but the Shadow Ball took in the flames somehow and the fiery orb hit the dragon in the face. Dragonair dropped limply to the ground, defeated.

"Return," Mark said as the Pokéball absorbed the blue dragon. He suddenly realized that he had only Leta left, and she was very low-leveled compared to the rest of his team. He bit his lip, but nonetheless grabbed the metallic sphere.

"Go, Leta!" he yelled, throwing the ball. It bounced off the ground and popped open; the plain-looking shape of the Pokémon he had caught earlier emerged from it and looked timidly at Mightyena.

Ash hesitated. "Mightyena, Take Down, but be careful."

The wolf leapt towards the much smaller Leta, growling. It smashed powerfully into her body; she let out a high-pitched squeal, but stood up and stared at Mightyena, waving her tail rhythmically. The wolf was quickly hypnotized, and moments later its muscles relaxed, causing it to drowsily drop down as its eyes closed completely.

"Great job, Leta!" Mark cheered. "Now, um…" He had no idea what kind of attacks Leta might be able to use; finally, he just decided to make his best available guess:

"Tackle!"

He was relieved to see that Leta recognized the attack and rammed her small body into Mightyena's; he'd have hated to make a fool of himself in front of Ash Ketchum by showing that he didn't even know his Pokémon's attacks. The disappointing part was that the wolf was way too big to be even affected by such a tiny Pokémon's Tackle at all. Leta did her best a few times, but Mightyena didn't even move and Mark saw Ash smiling slightly at Leta's unsuccessful efforts. The white Pokémon seemed to give up, walked a few steps backwards and crouched down. Then she charged towards Mightyena.

"Yeah, Headbutt!" Mark quickly said in some kind of a subconscious attempt to make it look like he knew what he was doing. Leta slammed her head into Mightyena's body, but unfortunately this woke the wolf up. Mightyena growled and bared its fangs.

"Recall her, Mark," Ash sighed. "She doesn't stand a chance."

Mark had to admit that he was right. He reluctantly took out Leta's Pokéball and it absorbed her inside. He looked nervously at Ash.

"You passed," he said, smiling. "Tell me, though… what was that thing your Gyarados did?"

"Er…" Mark thought a bit. "I don't know, to be honest. He just can do that."

Ash looked puzzled, but like he was realizing something nonetheless. "Ah well," he finally said, "it probably all has some natural explanation."

"Do _you_ know what Dragonair did?" Mark asked.

"Dragonair? Oh, that was just some clever usage of the Dragon type's association with fire. Your Gyarados, however… he did something that shouldn't even be possible." He furrowed his brow, seemingly thinking hard.

"Well, thanks," said Mark doubtfully before walking off to the judges' table.


	24. The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament

**Author's Note:** This chapter contains occasional glimpses of Pokémon's thoughts in the middle of Mark's POV during battles. When I originally wrote this chapter, I intended for that to become a thing, but it didn't really end up appearing again.

* * *

**The Pokémon Festival – May 23rd: The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament**

Mark woke up before May the next day. He had never thought he'd ever be relieved to wake up to a nightmare about creepy yellow eyes, but it was not at all pleasant to be woken up by May's yells every morning, either. He quickly got dressed, and just as he pulled on his socks, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Hey, sleepy!"

"I'm up already!" Mark called back, walking towards the door and opening it. "What event is today again?"

"The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament," May replied.

"What was that again?" Mark asked, yawning.

"It's a thingy where your Pokémon battle without trainers," she explained. "Look, I have a thingy on it." She held up a booklet and then started skimming it.

"It says here that it's 'a competition of how well Pokémon can handle their own battles without the limits set by trainers and standard battling rules'," she read and looked up. "That translates to 'something where your Pokémon beat each other up and you have nothing to do with it'."

Mark considered this. He wasn't the best battler, after all – maybe his Pokémon would like to get some time to shine by themselves.

"It also says here," May continued, "that trainer-free battling 'helps your Pokémon's ability to think independently within battle', and to 'know their own limits'."

Mark nodded. That would definitely help him get some badges; after all, he did usually rely on his Pokémon's abilities rather than his own when battling.

"Umm, are you entering?" he finally asked.

"No," she said. "I prefer to win thanks to my own strategies, not my Pokémon's."

A part of Mark decided to take that as a personal attack, but the other part prevented him from saying anything.

"Well, I like the idea," he said decisively. "I'm entering… all of my Pokémon."

"Well, the same trainer may only enter a maximum of three Pokémon," May read from the booklet. "So that won't work."

"Oh." Mark paused for a second. "Well, I won't enter Leta, the Pokémon there are probably all much stronger than she is… Jolteon really deserves to be in, though; he didn't get to take part in the Attack Approval at all..."

"It says here you can't enter Pokémon that rely on water to battle," May pointed out.

"Then I guess Gyarados can't be entered either," Mark clarified. After a short pause, he sighed.

"I'm being an idiot – of course I have to ask them."

May didn't reply; he took out his Pokéballs and sent out all of his Pokémon except Gyarados. He started by briefly explaining the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament.

"So," he finished, "who wants to enter and who doesn't?"

"I want to," Leta said quietly.

"But…" Mark protested, startled. "There will be really strong Pokémon there…"

"Yes," Leta replied emptily.

May's booklet saved Mark from trying to convince her otherwise:

"Well, the minimum level to enter appears to be 30. It says here that there are five groups: level 30-45, level 46-60, 61-75, 76-90 and 91+. Leta is level 22, isn't she? So she can't enter. The rest of you can, though."

Leta didn't say anything. She just looked down.

"I'm sorry," said Mark although he actually felt very relieved. "What about the rest of you?"

"I'll volunteer not to be in," said Dragonair after a moment's pause. "As fun as it would be to fly some more, I'm not that interested."

The rest of the Pokémon looked at each other for a while.

"I guess I'll pass too, then" Sandslash said finally. "I don't really care either way."

"Great," said Mark cheerfully. "That's all settled, then?"

All the Pokémon except Leta nodded. She just stared emptily straight forward.

"All right," she finally sighed after everybody's eyes had been set on her for a second.

"I'm sorry, Leta," Mark said quietly. She just nodded shortly.

* * *

What had been done with the stadium since yesterday was amazing. Tall walls now divided the arena into five parts, one for each level group. The one for level 30-45 was the smallest, while the level 91+ one was the biggest by far. There weren't many people accompanying Mark and May on the small section of seats that faced towards the 30-45 part; Mark guessed that almost all of them were probably the trainers of participating Pokémon, like him, or their friends, like May.

Mark noticed that the walls were much thicker than they needed to be; just as he was wondering why, doors slid open on either side of the mini-arena.

"Welcome to the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament!" a voice boomed out. "I will be commenting on the battles today. Let's just start round one!"

Two men holding Pokéballs appeared in the doors, ready to throw them.

"And the first match is between a level 35 male Jolteon and a level 35 female Vibrava named Terra! Let the battle begin!"

The men threw the Pokéballs; out of them came Jolteon and a weird, green and yellow dragonfly-like Pokémon. It flapped its wings and floated lazily a little above the ground.

_It's a dragonfly… Pokémon that fly are weak to electricity, aren't they? I think May always used Pikachu for them…_

Jolteon crouched down, charging up electricity in the spikes on his back. The Vibrava watched him calmly; naturally he found it a bit odd, but he nonetheless released a bolt of lightning that shot towards the dragonfly Pokémon. She didn't even attempt to dodge; in fact it was almost like she took the full blast of the attack on purpose.

"And it's a Thunderbolt!" shouted the announcer.

Jolteon tilted his head with a confused "Jolti?" as the Vibrava kept floating there without reacting to the attack at all. There were no signs of her being in pain, or even having taken the attack at all.

Suddenly she jerked herself upwards and then dived down. She slammed hard into the ground, causing an explosion of ripples as if she had dived into water. Jolteon was too startled to avoid the attack and cried out in pain as he was hit, accidentally releasing a flurry of sparks.

"Terra used an Earthquake, but Jolteon is not quite down yet!"

_Earthquake?_

The Vibrava tried diving into the ground again, but this time Jolteon was ready and leapt up just before she landed. He came down on her back, locking his claws into her wings. The Vibrava screeched, flying upwards again in an attempt to shake Jolteon off. In the air, he started charging up more electricity and sending it pulsating directly into her body; she was just as unaffected as the previous time. The Vibrava turned her head around in an attempt to bite Jolteon; he leapt off her in time and she crashed right into the wall.

"Ouch! That must've hurt!" came the announcer's voice as Terra dropped weakly down to the ground. After looking unconscious for a second, she suddenly got up and blasted sparkly flames at Jolteon. Taken by surprise, he was hit; he felt his muscles stiffen but managed to shake it off.

"Nice Dragonbreath there! It almost paralyzed even the limber Jolteon!"

_Earthquake? Dragonbreath? Electricity not working? This is weird…_

"Jooooolt!" he screamed as he turned around and fired the spikes on his backside in a flurry towards the Vibrava. Like tiny, sharp needles, they tore into the dragonfly Pokémon's skin and wings; she screeched in pain.

"Ooh, clever Jolteon!" the announcer said. "He gets it! It's safe to reveal now, folks, that the Bug/Flying type that most people assume when they look at a Vibrava is in fact a brilliant disguise, because it is really a Ground/Dragon type!"

Everybody in the audience except May was surprised to hear this, Mark included.

"But back to the battle, Jolteon is using another Pin Missile in an attempt to eliminate Terra from the match! She was weakened earlier when she crashed, so now we just have to wonder whether he'll make it in time!"

As Jolteon took a short break to breathe, Terra shot into the air again, clearly preparing for another Earthquake, but Jolteon suddenly leapt at her at incredible speed, becoming a streak of yellow in the air as he struck her with his whole body.

"And it's a great Quick Attack!" the announcer shouted. "Let's see if Terra makes it!"

Both Pokémon landed on the ground, Jolteon on his feet but Terra on her side. She twitched slightly but didn't get up again.

"And Jolteon is the winner!" came the announcer's voice as the doors on the sides opened again and the men recalled the two Pokémon. Mark noticed that Jolteon was very tired after this battle; he hoped the Pokémon were healed before they had to battle again.

"The next battle is between this level 45 female Scizor and Blade the male Sceptile, who is also level 45!"

Two new Pokéballs were thrown, and the Pokémon emerged on the arena. Mark compared the crimson red, metallic bug with pincers of some sort on its arms and the large, green, bipedal reptile with a fern for a tail. He had always thought Sceptile was ugly when he looked at the illustration in his Pokémonology textbook, mainly because the tail always reminded him of a Christmas tree; now that he saw one in real life, he thought it didn't look so bad.

Meanwhile, the Scizor had been performing weird ninja tricks of some sort on the air, seemingly lost in her own world. The Sceptile raised an eyebrow before suddenly roaring and leaping at her, hoping to take her by surprise; however, she somehow grabbed him by the arm in mid-air and threw him to the ground as easily as a sheet of paper.

"Ooh, Scizor pretended to be playing around while she was really building up her power with Swords Dance! Clever move there!"

The reptile got up, seemingly mad about being fooled like that. He suddenly plucked a leaf off his own tail; it started glowing as he leapt at her again with a roar, attempting to strike her with the edge of the leaf as if it were a sword. She narrowly blocked it with her pincer, but then said something. The Sceptile nodded and they turned around, walking a few steps back.

"I think Scizor just challenged Blade to a duel!" said the announcer as the two Pokémon turned around and rushed at each other. Their arms moved like blurs, attacking and blocking attacks, and the audience could only guess what was really happening from the occasional roars as one of them got hit. Finally, they stopped to catch their breaths. The Sceptile was notably more hurt; he had a big bleeding gash on his forehead and quite a few scratches and bruises, while Scizor's shiny armor was barely damaged. The reptile looked a lot more tired, too, but he had no intentions of giving up; he grabbed another leaf from his tail and held it in his other hand, and rushed at the bug again.

"Poor Blade doesn't have much of a chance here, I'm afraid," the announcer explained. "His Leaf Blade attack is not very effective on Bug and Steel Pokémon like Scizor at all."

This announcement only made the reptilian Pokémon all the more furious; he started slashing faster and harder with his leaves, and Scizor showed signs of starting to have a hard time keeping up with his speed as she blocked one strike after another. Finally Blade made a fatal mistake; one strike was too low, Scizor saw her chance, leapt into the air and smashed her pincers into his skull.

A sickening crack was heard. A red-haired teenage girl in the audience screamed, presumably Blade's trainer. The reptile dropped limply to the ground, his head covered with blood.

The two Pokémon were recalled; Blade was at least still alive since the Pokéball worked.

"Blade will now be escorted to the Pokémon Center to be taken care of," the announcer assured. "He will be fine. The next battle is Fury the level 40, and obviously male, Hitmonchan, versus Happy the level 38 obviously-female Chansey! It's a battle of the sexes! Who will win?"

Mark rolled his eyes. They were selecting Pokémon of at least similar levels to battle, but they kept giving one Pokémon a type advantage over the other. This Chansey was probably dead meat.

The doors opened. A rather humanoid-looking brown creature wearing a purple tunic and boxing gloves walked out on one side, and an egg-shaped pink creature with a happy expression emerged from a Pokéball on the other. Fury stretched and yawned while keeping an eye on his opponent, and then faced her to bow deeply. As he rose up again, he suddenly delivered a sharp punch to her head and then a kick to her stomach. Her eyes widening in surprise, the Chansey bounced backwards like a rubber ball, landing on her back and flailing around. Fury walked up to her and smiled apologetically before raising his right fist into the air; his glove sparkled with electricity before he gave the Chansey another punch. She screamed and stopped moving.

Fury stroked nonexistent sweat from his forehead as the Chansey was recalled; Mark saw a dark-haired boy in the audience smack his forehead and guessed that he was Happy's trainer. Then the Hitmonchan walked out of the arena. Mark wondered why he wasn't in a Pokéball; maybe his trainer was one of those anti-Pokéballs people.

"Umm, after this, er, great match, we'll see Jaws the male Feraligatr, level 42, battle Cannon the Blastoise, level 41 male."

Two Pokéballs were thrown, opening to reveal two huge, blue Water Pokémon. One was a bipedal alligator like the one the Mew Hunter had possessed; this one was undeniably larger, though. The other was a gigantic tortoise, also bipedal, with two shiny metallic cannons poking out of holes in its shell.

For a while the two just growled, staring at each other and baring their fangs. Then the Feraligatr ran towards Cannon and they started wrestling. Jaws bit the Blastoise's cannon; the tortoise Pokémon started pumping water through it with tremendous force, pushing the alligator slightly back. He moved out of the way and then used what was, according to the announcer, a Dynamicpunch. This sent the Blastoise tumbling backwards until he fell over, and while he lay helplessly on his back, flailing around, the Feraligatr smashed his tail into Cannon's stomach. With a loud groan, he fell unconscious and Jaws celebrated victory with a few roars. The two Pokémon were recalled.

"Next battle! We have this level 36 female Raichu against a level 37 male Umbreon called Wraith!"

The two Pokémon were sent out. One was an orange rodent, most likely one of those that had been evolved in the Evolution Solution, and the other was a sleek, black catlike creature with long ears and tail; Mark recognized it as the Dark type evolution of Eevee. It had glowing, yellow rings on its forehead, ears, tail and legs.

The Raichu charged her yellow cheeks with electric sparks before sending a bolt of lightning at the Umbreon. He took the attack and shrieked slightly in pain, but shook it off. His rings started glowing as a black orb of shadow formed in front of him; then it was fired at Raichu and hit her. She was thrown backwards and moaned in pain before standing up again with difficulty.

"Raichu started off this battle with a Thunderbolt, but Wraith countered with a nice Shadow Ball! Good start!"

Wraith now started kicking sand that appeared under his feet into the Raichu's eyes. The mouse Pokémon retaliated by starting to sparkle and slamming her lightning bolt-shaped tail into the Umbreon's body. His muscles stiffened, leaving him paralyzed and forcing him to stop – but suddenly Raichu's body also stiffened with a flurry of electric sparks.

"Ooh… Wraith used a Sand-Attack, and then Raichu countered with a neat Thunder Wave, which would have given her a nice advantage if only it weren't for Umbreon's Synchronize ability which causes all special conditions to rebound upon the user!" the announcer called. "Bad mistake there, Raichu!"

Wraith suddenly opened his mouth and sprayed out a dark purple liquid. The sticky substance went all over the paralyzed Raichu and started seeping into her fur. She moaned.

"Wraith uses a Toxic! Oh, this is deadly!"

With some difficulty, the mouse Pokémon sent a bolt of lightning at the Umbreon. He couldn't avoid the attack thanks to his condition, but he clearly had the endurance that his species was known for and took the attack without much trouble while Raichu shivered from the poisoning. Wraith's red eyes glowed, and he seemed to be healed slightly.

"That, folks, was an example of a Moonlight attack used in daylight," the announcer explained. "You can't really see it because the sun lights everything up, but Wraith just made the moon shine brightly on him, giving him added energy. The Moonlight attack is quite a sight to see in nighttime – it's a shame you didn't get to have a good look at it. Oh, look, Raichu is using a Thunderpunch!"

While he talked, the mouse Pokémon's fist had started sparkling, and now she slammed it into Wraith's face. He cried out in pain as the electricity surged through his body, but he clearly knew that he was going to win this battle; he gave a small smile as Raichu moaned and dropped to the ground, fainting from the poison.

"And Wraith has claimed victory!" the announcer roared as the two Pokémon were recalled back into their Pokéballs. "The next battle is between this level 35 male Charmeleon, and a level 37 Jynx who is, obviously, female."

Mark looked hopefully up; Jynx had a slight level advantage, but Charmeleon had the types in his favor.

The two Pokémon were sent out at the sides. Charmeleon's opponent was a humanoid-looking Pokémon in a red dress. This was, of course, just the standard Jynx outfit, similar to Hitmonchan's gloves and tunic, and mainly served the purpose of keeping the people who were bothered by naked humanoid Pokémon at bay; it really limited the Pokémon's ability to move freely. Jynx's face, framed by straight blond hair, had purple skin, scary, white eyes and a round, pink mouth.

Charmeleon, who stood on the other side of the arena, looked calmly at Jynx, his arms folded. Then he moved his hand up to his mouth and breathed out a small flame. He absent-mindedly stared at it for a while; in the meantime, Jynx watched him suspiciously.

All of a sudden, the lizard hurled the small ball of fire at his opponent. Jynx's dress was hit by it; she let out a very eerie scream and her purple hand glowed icy blue as she cooled it down.

"Clever," the announcer commented. "Charmeleon has made up an attack. Wonder if he was at the Attack Approval yesterday?"

Jynx all of a sudden ran up to Charmeleon. He seemed somehow hypnotized and didn't try to run away or attack; she came right up to him, closer, closer, closer… and then she planted a kiss on his cheek.

His eyes opened wide for a second, but as Jynx backed slowly away, he looked dizzy; Mark could've sworn he was drunk when he started teetering and muttering something while trying to reach for Jynx's dress. A few people started laughing, including May; Mark felt his face go red.

"This Sweet Kiss confused Charmeleon thoroughly! What will he do now?"

He didn't manage to do anything at all before Jynx started smiling eerily while staring into his eyes. Mark saw his Pokémon slowly put up a very dorky grin, before his mouth simply fell open.

"Jynx's Attract keeps Charmeleon charmed!" The announcer snickered at his own pun while Charmeleon stood there drooling. Mark was probably the only person who wasn't in hysterics by now; he wanted to sink into the ground when Jynx approached Charmeleon again and kissed him again, this time on the lips. Charmeleon joined heartily in; while they kissed passionately, Jynx slowly lowered Charmeleon onto the ground and closed her eyes. Charmeleon did the same.

As their lips were about to part, Charmeleon's eyes suddenly opened. Realizing what he was doing, he ripped himself free of Jynx's arms, wearing a disgusted expression.

"Charmeleon resisted Jynx's Lovely Kiss! That is quite an achievement, mind you!"

_How could I let myself be humiliated like this?_

He spat on the ground a few times, looking at his opponent with disgust before releasing a Flamethrower. It hit Jynx in the face, but before she could do anything, Charmeleon's tail flame flared up to double its normal size as he leapt at Jynx and started clawing and biting like crazy.

"Charmeleon clearly doesn't like being seduced! He expresses his anger with a Rage attack, and… yes, I think Jynx is down!"

It was true; Jynx was unconscious, her dress charred and ripped. Charmeleon shot her a nasty glare as they were both recalled.

"Our next battle is between a level 43 male Scyther and a male Absol by the name of Armageddon, level 45."

Mark smiled to his mantis as he was sent out; his opponent was a big catlike creature with thick, white fur, a black face, red eyes and a sickle of sorts sticking out of the right side of his head.

"Absol!" Armageddon hissed, crouching down and leaping at Scyther. He jumped out of the way, but the Absol landed gracefully and turned immediately around to face Scyther again. They circled each other for a few seconds, but then Scyther flew straight at Armageddon with his scythes raised, glowing green. He managed to get a few rapid slashes in before the Absol swished his white-glowing blade and gave Scyther a cut across his chest. They stopped for a second to catch their breaths, but then Armageddon rushed back at Scyther, who blocked the blade with his scythes. He tried attacking back, but the Absol blocked that too.

In the long run, though, what gave Scyther an advantage was the fact that he had two blades while Absol only had one. It didn't take him long to figure out the perfect way to use this to his advantage, and after that Armageddon was dead meat, receiving one slash after another without being able to do anything to prevent it. Finally, the Absol gave up and crouched down on the ground. Scyther's expression showed no emotion as the two Pokémon were recalled.

"Armageddon surrendered, so Scyther is the winner!" said the announcer. "The final battle of round one is Casey the female Pidgeot, level 45, and a male Haunter, level 44."

Two Pokémon were released, one of them an eagle-like bird with a crest of very long, golden and red feathers on its head, and the other a weird, wispy, purple shape with sinister eyes and a jagged red mouth. Two disembodied hands which clearly belonged to the creature appeared out of thin air at its sides.

Casey started rapidly flapping her wings; in a matter of seconds, she had whipped up a small whirlwind and sent it towards the Haunter. He let out some comical screams as his gaseous form was beaten around by the whirlwind and finally sent flying in a random direction; Casey destroyed the whirlwind with a few flaps of her wings in the right places as the ghost Pokémon floated dizzily back into the arena.

The Haunter's hands started glowing bright red, along with his eyes. The flapping of Casey's wings gradually slowed down as she floated irregularly towards the ground; as she landed there, her eyes closed and she collapsed, fast asleep.

Satisfied, Haunter started muttering to himself and then floated down to the sleeping bird Pokémon. His left hand touched her head lightly and he got an expression like he was trying to remember something; then he nodded and suddenly, a freakishly long, pink tongue came out of his mouth and licked Casey's head crest. As her feathers dripped with salvia, she twitched violently; without waking up, though.

"And Haunter uses a Dream Eater attack on the defenseless Casey!"

As Haunter licked her again, Casey's eyes opened. She shook herself while standing up, beating the ghost away with her wings at the same time. Haunter hurriedly floated to a safe distance as Casey took off into the air; then the ghost charged up a black orb of shadow in front of him, picked it up in his left hand and threw it at the bird Pokémon. This was a fatal mistake; Casey quickly started flapping her wings fast and the strong gust of wind turned the orb back to the user. Haunter let out a sound somewhere midway between a scream and a laugh before the orb clashed with him and they somehow negated each other out so they both vanished.

"Haunter's Shadow Ball wouldn't have worked on Casey anyway, as a Normal type," the announcer explained as Casey and what was left of Haunter were recalled. "That concludes round one; now it's time for the winners of round one to go on to round two!"

Mark suddenly now properly realized that all three of his Pokémon had won their battles. He smiled as it struck him that he himself not being a skilled battler ultimately meant that his Pokémon were more skilled than most of the other ones.

Still, it was a fact that a few levels could always beat skill.

"You've already been introduced to all the Pokémon, so now it's just starting the next battle! Jolteon versus Scizor!"

Mark was startled. "Wait a minute," he asked May, "wasn't Scizor level 45? Why are they pitting her against Jolteon? They were pairing Pokémon of similar levels earlier!"

"They probably wanted to avoid making two of your Pokémon fight if possible," May whispered back. "Besides, they weren't exactly always fair earlier either. Maybe they like seeing one Pokémon get beaten to a pulp and another not needing much effort to win."

"But still…"

May pointed down into the arena, where Jolteon and Scizor had been sent out, and Mark shut up.

_Scizor has wings… I guess electricity is worth a try._

Jolteon charged sparks in his body and sent a bolt of lightning towards the big red bug. She easily leapt out of the way, and then zoomed straight towards Jolteon with her pincers raised. She clamped both of them around his right front leg.

A sickening crunch followed by Jolteon's scream of pain caused Mark to avert his eyes. He immediately regretted having entered Jolteon in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament at all.

Jolteon, feeling pain like he had never felt before, pumped electricity into Scizor's body in order to make her let go. She leapt backwards, leaving Jolteon to look at his awkwardly-angled leg and cringe. He whimpered; Scizor charged at him again, evaded a Thunderbolt and then knocked Jolteon out with a heavy blow to the head.

"Scizor has won this battle, and thus we proceed to the next one," the announcer said as Jolteon and Scizor were recalled. "Fury the Hitmonchan and Jaws the Feraligatr are next up!"

"See?" Mark directed at May. "Those two are somewhere in between Jolteon and Scizor! They could have made Jolteon battle one of them and Scizor battle the other!"

May just shrugged. "Well, maybe they're just lazy and are making the winners of the first two battles battle now or something."

The two Pokémon were sent out – again, Fury walked by himself rather than being sent out from a Pokéball.

Fury was adjusting his gloves for a while, absent-minded; then all of a sudden, he sprang up and gave the alligator a good punch in the stomach.

"Fury's decided to start this one with a Mach Punch!" cried the announcer. "Jaws – Jaws – he uses a powerful Slash attack, but Fury evades it!" he continued as the humanoid leapt out of the way of the Feraligatr's claws. "Fury uses a Comet Punch – Jaws bites his arm – ouch!"

The red boxing glove on Fury's free arm glowed white before he drove it into the alligator's jaw.

"Fury gets Jaws to release him with a Mega Punch attack! And what does Jaws do…"

The Feraligatr, stumbling backwards, opened his mouth and sprayed a jet of high-pressure water at the Hitmonchan.

"It's a Hydro Pump, but FURY EVADES IT! Wow, that's some agility there! Fury charges – he Dynamicpunches Jaws right in the skull! Oww, that must've hurt a lot! Jaws is kinda dizzy – no, wait, he's down! Jaws is down! Fury has won the match!"

The Hitmonchan smiled slightly as he walked out of the arena; a Pokéball recalled the unconscious alligator.

"Next up are Wraith and Charmeleon!" the announcer declared as the two Pokémon were sent out. "The ringwraith meets the lovebird!"

Charmeleon growled threateningly; some people laughed. Looking at Wraith with a gaze that could kill, he breathed a small flame into his hand like he had done in his battle with Jynx, and clenched his fist. Then he darted towards Wraith with a roar; the much slower Umbreon couldn't outrun him before Charmeleon slashed him with white-hot claws. Wraith shrieked in pain as his side was torn up.

"Ow, ow, ow!" was all the announcer said.

Charmeleon now breathed out a cloud of silky flames as Wraith tried to run away. Not built to dodge, he was hit by the full blast, screaming.

"Charmeleon is using quite a strategy here, folks!" the announcer explained. "He clearly knows that an Umbreon's skin is very tough, and therefore heated up his claws before his Slash attack to cut deeper. Then, with open wounds there, Wraith is vulnerable, which serves Charmeleon's main goal: making that Flamethrower _hurt_."

Mark stared at his Pokémon, who was watching closely as Wraith attempted to stand up. That was, to say the least, _very_ well thought-out for a relatively young Pokémon.

Wraith, who had been struggling to stand up, collapsed again. Charmeleon smiled victoriously as the two were recalled.

"The next match of round two is between Scyther and Casey the Pidgeot! It's a match of talons and scythes!"

The eagle-like Pokémon was sent out on one end and Scyther on the other. Mark noticed that he was exhausted and the cut across his chest was just as bad as earlier – the Pokémon were clearly not healed between rounds.

Casey stood on the ground, tilting her head and observing Scyther with an expression of disdain. The mantis just stared into her eyes until she suddenly looked up, spread her wings and took off. Scyther did the same, and they flew at each other. Unlike the very planned duel between Scyther and Armageddon, this was more of a cat fight; they scratched aimlessly at each other as quickly as they could, feathers raining down onto the ground. There was no way to see what was really happening until they took a short break to breathe after kicking each other backwards.

Casey's missing and ruffled feathers were giving her a slightly hard time flying; Mark noticed that she was clearly flapping her wings faster than in her earlier, healthier state. Her left wing bled; Mark wasn't sure if the red in some other places of her body was just blood from the wing or if they were individual wounds. Scyther, on the other hand, had gotten his slash from the earlier duel scratched up to bleed more, along with some minor scratches in various parts of his body.

The two Pokémon flew at each other again; Scyther's strategy had changed, however, as he now focused especially on Casey's injured wing like she had been focusing on his cut. Casey started having a harder time maintaining her altitude now, and this enabled Scyther better access to her wing. Finally Casey dropped to the ground, exhausted. Scyther also landed, panting. Mark was surprised to see that only Casey was recalled; Scyther was left in.

"And now it's the semi-finals! Four Pokémon have gotten this far – which of them will compete in the final match? We're about to find out, and in quite a battle – Scyther versus his own evolved form, Scizor!"

Scyther looked oddly up as the red, armored bug was sent out on the other side of the arena. He got up very slowly, clearly completely out of energy but determined nevertheless.

_Scizor…_

Scyther's gaze attempted to tear the Pokémon in front of him apart.

_Nobody can stop me now… I'm getting my revenge…_

He dashed towards her as fast as he could in his current state; she leapt out of the way with relative ease.

_Fast for a Scizor, are we?_

_Not that that's saying much…_

He darted towards her again; she was about to dodge him in the same manner as before, but he predicted her movement and tackled her to the ground. Scizor locked her pincers around Scyther's arm and tightened her grip. This wasn't quite as effective as it had been on Jolteon, since Scyther didn't have any bones to break, but it bought her a second which she could use to get up. Scizor then zoomed at Scyther to attack him, but he smashed his scythe into her as she came within reach and sent her unexpectedly flying through the air, crashing down on the ground. As she tried to stand up, he jumped on top of her and pinned her down, quickly bringing his scythe to her throat.

_Prepare to die, Scizor._

"STOP THE BATTLE!"

Scyther looked up; a tall, dark-haired boy in the top row had stood up.

"It's going to kill my Scizor!" the boy yelled.

"Scizor's trainer," the announcer said simply, "when you entered your Pokémon in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, you signed a paper stating that you were aware of the rules of the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament. Trainers must not interfere with their Pokémon's battles."

"I DON'T CARE!" the trainer screamed. "THAT'S MY POKÉMON DOWN THERE!"

"The Pokémon Frenzy Tournament is free of all rules and restrictions of normal trainer battles," the announcer said calmly. "The Pokémon are free to do whatever they want."

"NO!" Scizor's trainer roared as Scyther turned his attention back to his opponent. But his scythe didn't move.

His gaze traveled back to the trainer, then to her again; then he slowly released her and stood up. Scyther said something, but nobody heard it through the roars of the other crowds. Scizor didn't stand up, clearly admitting defeat; Scyther stared oddly at her as the two of them were recalled.

"That was quite a battle!" said the announcer cheerfully in some kind of a failed attempt to liven up the dead silence.

"I… I wouldn't have wanted my Pokémon to be a murderer…" Mark whispered to May.

She shrugged. "Technically, he already is. Even if the Mew Hunter didn't make him kill anybody, he's a predator and…"

"Thank you, May," Mark interrupted coldly.

"Well, our next battle is between Charmeleon and Fury the Hitmonchan," said the announcer awkwardly; Fury walked into the arena on one side and Charmeleon was sent out of his ball on the other.

"I might add, if you don't hate me too much," said May shortly, "that if Charmeleon wins this, the final battle will be Scyther versus Charmeleon."

Mark froze completely, his heart skipping a few beats. She was right; how could he not have noticed?

"Oh God…" he muttered. "They're going to kill each other…"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, Mark," May pointed out. "See, even though Charmeleon has the type advantage, Scyther is at a much higher level, and a bigger and stronger Pokémon in general, besides being one of the very reasons that the Agreement tells Pokémon to specifically not aim their attacks to be fatal. So basically, Charmeleon is going to get sliced up."

Mark would have commented on how stupidly calmly she said that, like she didn't care, but he was too busy worrying.

"And I can't interfere, as we saw when Scizor's trainer tried to…"

"So we just need to hope Charmeleon loses big time now," May finished. "Come on, Fury is at a higher level, and fully evolved. Charmeleon isn't very likely to win."

"I guess," said Mark, despite being absolutely not convinced. Charmeleon had proven himself to be very clever so far in the tournament, and he didn't look at all about to lose very easily. Mark shifted his attention back to the battle; Charmeleon was just firing a Flamethrower which Fury dodged before punching the lizard in the stomach, chest and jaw in rapid succession.

"Fury used a Comet Punch, and Charmeleon doesn't appear to be feeling very good…" said the announcer's voice as the lizard bent over and spat some blood onto the ground. He looked up again, narrowing his eyes, and then breathed a flame into his hand. Fury leapt forward; Charmeleon grabbed the opportunity and threw the fireball. It singed Fury's shoulder and he slightly lost his balance; landing awkwardly, he was vulnerable for a second and this allowed Charmeleon to jump on his back and dig his white-hot claws into the Fighter's skin. Fury, while obviously in intense pain, didn't let out a sound and stayed on the ground, slowly enveloping himself in a light blue aura. Charmeleon jumped off his back, and while Fury turned around, the lizard formed flames in his throat and released a bright blast of fire to hit Fury straight in the face.

"A nice Flamethrower, which has even greater effects due to Fury's current state – he used the energy he uses to perform Ice Punch to cool down the pain in his wounds, but this made him more vulnerable to sudden exposure to more heat."

The Hitmonchan stumbled a few steps backwards, but then suddenly darted forward again as his fist glowed and delivered a punch to Charmeleon's skull. The lizard was thrown harshly backwards, landing on his side. His consciousness seemed to be drifting away when he forced his eyes open and stood up.

"Charmeleon is clearly tough! That Mega Punch should have knocked him out for sure!"

Charmeleon fired another Flamethrower; Fury was getting too tired to dodge well, and was partially scorched by the flames. After being hit, he held both of his gloved hands into the air before walking out of the arena. It was clear what this was: he had given up. Mark's heart sank.

"And Charmeleon is the winner! It's time for the final match: Scyther versus Charmeleon! Incidentally, they are both owned by the same trainer – this will be interesting…"

"No, no, no, please, no…" Mark moaned. "I'm not watching…"

He started staring at an ancient, moldy piece of pink chewing gum that had been stuck on the back of the seat in front of him. May rolled her eyes and sighed.

Charmeleon grinned with satisfaction as Scyther was sent out on the other side of the arena. He growled an insult, but the mantis barely seemed to notice. He was all absent-minded and strange.

_It's time… time to advance…_

"Char…" he growled. "CHAARMELEON!"

He closed his eyes in deep concentration and clenched his fists.

"Mark," May whispered, poking his shoulder, "you have to see this."

Mark looked up. Charmeleon was slowly being wrapped in a white glow…

"Would you look at that!" the announcer yelled. "Charmeleon is evolving, here at the start of the final battle of the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament! Now this is something you don't see every day!"

Mark stared as his first Pokémon changed in shape for the second time. He grew much larger, the horn on his head split into two narrower ones, his head grew longer and more dragon-like, his neck and tail lengthened, and two leathery wings sprouted from his shoulders. The glow faded away to reveal a fully grown Charizard.

He let out an ear-splitting roar, glaring madly at Scyther. The mantis was clearly astonished, but kept calm. Mark noticed that he didn't look about to attack at all for some reason.

Charizard bent over and started coughing up a bit more blood; however, he then appeared to get a better idea and spat it at Scyther instead. His face got covered in it...

_Blood._

_Blood is red._

It clicked in Mark's brain: something red in a Scyther's eyes equals disaster. He quickly focused on the chewing gum again.

Charizard took off from the ground, trying out his new ability to fly. Scyther looked at him through a layer of bright red, and then darted towards the nearest moving object with his scythes in the air: Charizard's wings.

The dragon growled, swung his powerful, flaming tail and smashed it into Scyther's body, throwing him to the ground. He got up again with some difficulty, blinking; the blood was clearing out of his eyes now, but this hesitation gave Charizard a perfect opportunity to smash his powerful tail into Scyther's head, knocking him out and driving him face-down into the ground. Charizard flew slowly up with a triumphant smile, raising his tail.

_One more attack is sure to get rid of him for good…_

"No, please, no…" Mark prayed, still staring at the gum and refusing to look at what was happening.

Charizard lowered his tail slightly.

_Why am I doing this again?_

_We hated each other… but why? I don't remember him ever doing anything to me…_

_I… I got him to hate me back… I wanted him to hate me back…_

_I was afraid that he would attack Mark…_

_No… I was a jealous little idiot and convinced myself that that was why…_

_I've matured now… but my actions can't be taken back…_

Charizard stared at Scyther, lowering his tail completely.

_What have I done?_

He suddenly stopped flapping his wings and crashed into the ground.

"It… it looks like this terrifying battle ended in a draw," the announcer spoke in a slightly trembling voice. "Charizard has given up, but Scyther doesn't seem to be in a very good condition either."

* * *

Mark never really remembered what happened after that. He just came to his senses as he lay in one of the couches in the Pokémon Center and looked at Nurse Joy's face going in and out of focus as she told him that Scyther was no longer in critical condition.

He looked confusedly around. The windows were dark and the few people in the Pokémon Center were asleep. May appeared to have been sleeping on the next couch, as she was now sitting and rubbing her eyes as she listened to Nurse Joy explaining something about Scyther.

Mark stroked his forehead and shut his eyes, trying to recall what had happened. It all seemed hazy. He just remembered the battles. He checked his watch; it was half past two in the morning.

"Any questions?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Er, no," Mark replied, not having listened to what she had been saying. "May, could you come over here?" he asked as the nurse walked back to the counter. Everything seemed out of order in Mark's brain.

"What?" May asked as she sat down opposite him.

"I can't remember anything…" Mark was getting a slight headache too. "Can you fill me in on what happened after the battle was over?"

May raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember it? That's weird."

"No…" Mark muttered.

"Then again, it makes sense, because you were _strange_, to say the least."

"What happened?" Mark repeated in frustration.

"Well, you suddenly stood up, walked down from the audience stands, cussed your head off at the Pokéball people for not recalling them earlier, took your Pokéballs to the Pokémon Center, handed them to Nurse Joy without an explanation so I had to tell her what happened, and then lay down here and stopped responding to anything. I waved my hand in front of your face and you didn't even blink."

"Huh?" Mark asked. "That's weird… I don't remember it at all…"

May just had a puzzled look on her face.

"It's odd, really, I… wait, Nurse Joy! Charizard! How is Charizard?" Mark asked worriedly, suddenly remembering that Charizard existed. The nurse came back and sighed.

"Physically, he's pretty much fine – just the normal Pokémon battle stuff. But he seems very depressed for some reason; he's refusing to eat or drink, or even respond at all. I'm worried he's trying to starve himself."

"Can I talk to him?" Mark requested concernedly. The nurse nodded and led him into a blue room akin to the one where Mark had talked to Eevee at the Cleanwater City Pokémon Center. May followed doubtfully.

Most of the Pokémon inside were asleep or unconscious, lying in beds with various accessories for each one. Charizard was awake, however; he was lying flat on his stomach in a corner near a window, completely motionless and staring blankly straight forward.

"Charizard?" Mark asked carefully. The dragon didn't react at all. Mark stood right in front of his eyes, but Charizard still seemed to be staring through him.

"Scyther is going to be all right, if that's what you're worried about."

No reactions.

"Can he even hear me?" Mark whispered to Nurse Joy. She nodded gravely.

"He definitely can. He just ignores it."

Something stirred in the other end of the room; Mark was surprised to see Scyther rising slowly up from one of the beds. Finally Charizard showed some signs of being alive; his eyes moved to the mantis and followed him across the room.

"Killing yourself won't help."

Scyther said this in a very calm voice, looking straight into Charizard's eyes. The dragon closed his eyes and smiled weakly.

"Says who?"

Scyther chuckled. "At least I know what I'm talking about. My situation is very different from yours. Your problem is a thing of the past, a foolish mistake, which didn't have any grave consequences."

"It could have," Charizard muttered. "I could have killed you…"

"But it didn't happen, and that's what matters," Scyther simply stated. "It is not going to make you suffer in the future unless you consciously let it."

"I was despicable," Charizard breathed. "I deserve to die."

Scyther sighed deeply. "All right then. I'm coming with you."

The mantis raised his scythe to his own throat. They looked into each other's eyes for a while.

"You wouldn't do it," Charizard said suddenly.

"Wouldn't I?" asked Scyther dangerously. "I'm not afraid of death. I've already died." He chuckled slightly. "You know, it actually isn't that bad in itself. But it isn't the ultimate solution you think it is…"

He paused for a few seconds, but then continued: "I can't say I was glad to be back, but I had no intentions of killing myself again. Mark keeps me alive – being a trainer's Pokémon gives me a purpose. And speaking of which… suicide would be a very bad way indeed to thank him for saving your life."

That hit the spot. Charizard looked at Mark for a second; not much, but definitely an improvement. The two Pokémon stared at each other for a little while.

"Well, I guess you're right," Charizard finally sighed. "I've been an idiot."

"You're already forgiven," Scyther just said.

"Besides… we can always die later, can't we?" Charizard smiled as he stood up. The mantis smiled back.

"Death is not to be feared…" Mark heard him mutter as the two Pokémon shook hands.


	25. The Threat

**The Pokémon Festival – May 24th: The Threat**

"There are two events today," May explained to Mark as they headed towards the Green Town Stadium. "First they've got Ash Ketchum's starter Pokémon giveaway. Then there's the Trainer's Market, which sells stuff cheaper than you can get it anywhere else. I've heard they even have Master Balls."

"Master Balls?" Mark asked curiously. "Do they sell them?"

"Only here, they're expensive and there's only one per trainer," May replied. "But I'm still getting one."

_Master Balls,_ Mark thought, biting his lip. He couldn't deny to himself what he had first thought of when she said that. The uneasy feeling he had had in his stomach since he woke up to yet another nightmare about yellow eyes grew.

"Hey!" called a familiar voice as Mark and May were about to enter the stadium to watch the starter Pokémon giveaway. Mark turned around to see Ash and Alan walking to them and waving.

"Is that…?" May whispered in his ear.

"Yep," Mark replied with a grin as she started staring at her fingernails. "Hi, Alan!"

"Hello, Mark," said Ash. "I heard about yesterday's incident… are your Pokémon okay?"

"Yes…" Mark said. "Err, what Pokémon are you going to be giving out now?" He quickly changed the subject.

"We've got a very wide selection, but only one or two of most of them," Ash explained. "This year we're giving out most small Pokémon that evolve except really rare ones and ones that can't battle out of water. Then we've got a Ditto, and that's the only Pokémon we have that doesn't evolve at all. Of course, the traditional starters are always the most popular, so we keep a bunch of them handy."

"How does the starter giveaway happen, anyway?" Mark asked.

"Well," Alan answered, "the kids get in line, tell us what Pokémon they're considering, I say some stuff about the Pokémon they're thinking about, and when they've confidently made up their minds, they get their Pokémon and trainer license and it's the next person's turn. Pretty basic."

"Oh, so you're in it too?" Mark asked curiously.

"Yeah," Alan replied. "Dad thinks it makes the kids less nervous if they're talking to a teenager, and at least not directly to him. Dunno if it helps, but I don't mind doing it."

"Oh, all right." Mark paused. "Should we walk down to the stadium together?"

"Sure," Alan answered. His father shrugged.

"Mmmm," May mumbled.

* * *

A hoard of nervous ten-year-olds entered the stadium and looked timidly around at the audience. Ash was seated at a table beside a Pokéball transfer machine on the far right; Alan stood in front of the table with a microphone.

A very childish-looking blond-haired girl with a pink ribbon in her hair was first in line. She teetered unsteadily towards Alan and muttered something. He turned his microphone off and muttered a bit back, presumably to make her feel less shy.

"Umm, this is Joanne," Alan announced, turning his microphone back on. "She was thinking about picking a Pichu…"

"NO!" screamed the small mousey-haired boy who was next in line. Joanne looked anxiously at him and then muttered something again.

"All right," said Alan, "she's changed her mind… she's considering Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur is a Grass/Poison type and one of the original starter Pokémon that Professor Oak gave out to children in Kanto… it's also Pokémon number one by National Pokédex. It evolves into Ivysaur and later Venusaur, and likes to use spores and powders as well as direct offensive Grass attacks. They're usually loyal, but tend to be a bit secluded and not the most social Pokémon around. So… Joanne, is this the Pokémon you want?"

She looked doubtfully at Alan like she had had an overload of information, but then nodded shyly.

"Great!" Alan said cheerfully as his father pressed some buttons on the Pokéball transfer machine and a red and white sphere fell out of the tube. Ash took the ball and handed it to Alan, who in turn passed it on to Joanne and gestured for her to send out the Pokémon. With a quick questioning glance at Alan, she lightly dropped the ball onto the ground. It popped open and the orb of red light inside it took shape into a green, spotted toadlike creature with a large plant bulb on its back. It blinked its bright red eyes a few times, looking up at its new trainer before extending two long, green vines from the base of its bulb and grabbing her hand with them. The crowd cheered, Joanne blushed and then recalled her Pokémon. She went up to Ash's table and was handed a green Pokédex and a trainer card; then she shook Ash's hand, her face bright red, and started running out of the arena.

"And now," Alan started, but didn't get to finish his sentence; the mousey-haired boy ran up to him and screamed "PICHU!", causing the microphone to produce an ear-splitting screech.

"Err," said Alan, covering his ears, "Pichu is a…"

"I just want my Pichu!" the boy yelled as Alan quickly pointed the microphone away.

"Um, well… all right, I guess." Alan shrugged and Ash quickly handed him a Pokéball to give to the hyperactive kid. The little boy tossed the Pokéball to the ground, jumping around in excitement as a small, yellow mouse-like Pokémon with diamond-shaped ears formed. It looked confusedly at the boy as he picked it up and hugged it.

Alan poked the boy's shoulder. "Er… can't you do that later? Go get your Pokédex."

The boy hurried over to Ash's table and stared at him with an expression of deep admiration. Ash smiled slightly and gave him a red Pokédex; the boy almost forgot to get his trainer card before bouncing out of the arena with his still confused Pichu.

A red-haired, tall boy was next; he walked up to Alan, cleared his throat and said into the mirophone: "I'd like a Ditto, please."

"There goes the most unique one," Alan said as a few kids groaned in disappointment. "Ditto is the only Pokémon we're giving out that doesn't evolve, and also the only non-Legendary Pokémon in the world with the ability to transform into other Pokémon. Ditto is perfect for strategists, because when Ditto has transformed it is exactly as powerful as its opponent and the trainer with the more skill will win. Is this your choice?"

"Yes," said the boy nervously. Alan nodded; his father handed him a Pokéball which he then gave to the boy.

"Thanks," the boy said, smiling as he dropped the Pokéball to the ground. A pink blob resembling a blotch of chewing gum with two tiny eyes and a thin mouth came out of the Pokéball.

"Ditto!" it squeaked before transforming into an exact replica of its trainer. He smiled and shook Ditto's hand before recalling his Pokémon again.

* * *

Once the starter Pokémon giveaway was over, they had a bit of free time while preparations for the Trainers' Market were being made.

"I think I'm going to call home," Mark said as they exited the arena. "Nothing better to do, and my parents would probably be happy to hear from me. After all, it would be the first time since I started my journey."

May shrugged. "My parents know I'm doing fine, even if I don't call them."

"I still want to call," Mark said decisively. "You coming with me to the Pokémon Center?"

"No," she said simply. "Your parents, your call."

"See you at the Trainers' Market, then."

"Bye."

Mark walked to the Pokémon Center and got permission to use the videophone. He picked up the receiver and dialed the number nervously.

"Hello? Mark?" came finally a deep male voice. The black screen started displaying a picture of Mark's father; he looked very worried. Mark saw his mother in the background hurrying up to the videophone. She looked worried too.

"Hi Dad," said Mark.

"Where are you?" Mark's mother interrupted.

"Um, Green Town Pokémon Center," he replied confusedly. His parents looked at each other; then his father turned back to the camera and sighed.

"Look, Mark… you're not about to go see Chale-thingy tomorrow, are you?"

"Well," he replied, "I'm not sure…"

"You're not going!" his father hissed, narrowing his eyes and leaning towards the camera. "You're not coming anywhere near that thing! Do you understand me?"

"Why?" Mark asked confusedly. "How do you even know what Chaletwo is?"

"Look," came his mother, pushing his father away, "we just wanted to keep you safe."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mark asked hotly.

His father sighed. "We didn't allow you to go on a Pokémon journey. We talked to the librarian about putting books involving Cha-whatever somewhere away. We did our best to prevent you from hearing about the Pokémon Festival. We did it all because we knew that as soon as you found out about it, you would want to see it and get yourself killed. Now, don't make all that effort be wasted."

"What?" Mark asked furiously. "You've been trying to keep it away from me? What sort of parents are you?"

"Parents who care about you, that's what sort!" Mark's father hissed. "Now promise me you'll stay away tomorrow. Just lie somewhere in your hotel room and pretend not to exist or something. Do you understand?"

Mark didn't answer.

"Mark? Mark? Can you hear me? What…"

He placed the receiver on the side of the videophone. The image on the screen flickered and disappeared.

Anger boiled within him. He had thought his parents were overprotective before, but this was the last straw. He couldn't stand the idea of having had all that kept from him for so long. So that was why they had never seemed to have anything against him going on a Pokémon journey until five years ago. And why he had never found any books about the Ouen legendaries before, and didn't know anything about the Pokémon Festival. So many mysteries were explained by this one phone call.

To get his mind to something else, he looked at his watch and decided that he might as well start walking down to the stadium again for the Trainer's Market. He kicked some stones along the way and decided that this call was nobody's business but his own.

He momentarily forgot about it when he entered the stadium. Dozens of sale stands were now standing there in neat rows; trainers of all ages were gathered around them to buy all the items they could dream of. The biggest crowd, however, was gathered around one stand, which Mark guessed was the one with the Master Balls. Hesitating, he walked up to what he presumed was the end of the line. Slowly the crowd thinned and he finally got to the stand. He took out his trainer card, remembering that they could be used as credit cards.

"You're selling Master Balls, right?" he asked, just to be sure. The brown-haired man on the other side nodded as he adjusted his sunglasses slightly.

"Okay… I'll have one."

The guy inserted Mark's trainer card into a slot on a small box. It beeped and a purple and white sphere with a small white 'M' on the front materialized on top of it.

"Here," the man said, handing it back to Mark along with his trainer card and a booklet. He quizzically looked at it; the front of it said 'Master Ball safety manual: Read before use.'

"Hey, get a move on," a voice said behind him, and Mark moved to the side. He bumped into a boy with a pale face and long, black hair.

"Victor?"

"Mark!" Victor exclaimed. "I thought I'd never find you! We were going to meet at the festival, remember?"

Mark blushed. "Oh, I forgot."

"It's all right," said Victor. "Um… is May here somewhere? Oh, there she is…"

Victor waved to her where she was somewhere in the crowd. She doubtfully waved back and then came to them.

"You're the Mutark guy, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Victor confirmed. "I wanted to speak to you two…"

May raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"Well…" Victor began, swallowing, and then sighed and gestured for them to follow him out of the stadium. He was only happy when they were standing by the side wall, out of everybody's earshot.

"What is this all about?" May asked impatiently.

"Er…" Victor started again. "Well, after you two had both left Scorpio City, Mitch told me that… that he had a feeling something would happen to you."

Mark got a sinking feeling in his stomach; May just raised her eyebrow further. "And? It's not like he's a psychic or something."

"He is," Mark muttered miserably, remembering what Victor had told him when they had met outside Scorpio City.

"It's just a rumour, of course," Victor quickly added. "But I'd still be careful if I were you – they say he has foreseen deaths and stuff."

"I don't believe in rumours," May said firmly, not looking very convinced. Mark didn't say anything. He just thought about Mitch's odd, hypnotic stare, the strange things he said and the way he had asked if Mark had dreamt anything. As much as he'd have loved to label it as just a rumour, it didn't seem all too unlikely that there was more to Mitch than met the eye.

"Well, that's all," Victor said nervously. "I'll… see you around, I guess."

"Bye," said May doubtfully. Mark mumbled something. Victor waved slightly and walked off.

"Do you think he's just trying to scare us?" May asked after a moment's pause.

"He didn't seem like it," Mark muttered.

"Mitch could be wrong, too," May suggested.

"Could I be wrong?"

Mark jumped and turned around to find Mitch suddenly standing there with a mysterious smile on his lips.

"Was what Victor said true?" May just asked.

"We had that conversation, yes," said Mitch and nodded slowly.

"But what…" Mark began before realizing that Mitch was walking off. Puzzled, the two kids looked at each other.

* * *

Mark felt uneasy for the remainder of the day. May was quieter than usual too; he also felt a strange need to keep her company. They stuck together until they went to their Pokémon Center rooms in the evening.

Mark didn't feel like going to sleep for some reason, so he picked up the booklet he had received at the Master Ball stand.

_IMPORTANT NOTICE_

_The Master Ball, while capable of holding any Pokémon no matter how powerful, will not automatically sway a Pokémon to obey you any more than a normal Pokéball will. Remember that Pokémon respect their trainers in accordance with their training experience and kindness, not their equipment! Always show caution when attempting to capture powerful Pokémon. If it appears unhappy about being captured, release it straight away and do not in any way give it a reason to dislike you._

_The Master Ball is best kept until you are an experienced trainer, and is wisest to use on a Pokémon that is rare rather than one that is powerful._

Mark read the words dully. He wasn't an idiot; this text basically translated to "Don't do anything foolish like trying to catch Chaletwo even though he's appearing tomorrow." He put the booklet down and sighed before taking out his paper and pencil and starting to draw.

He was lost in his own world for a while as his hand shot across the paper and drew the outlines of a Lugia. After the Lugia, he added a Zapdos, and a Moltres, and an Articuno…

He slowly got drowsy and in the end he realized that he had been dozing off for a few minutes while drawing. He stared at what he drawn while half-asleep.

_Wow, that's my best Mewtwo ever,_ was his first, somewhat sleepy thought. Then a cold shiver ran down his spine as he realized that its eyes were closed.


	26. Chaletwo's Arrival

**The Pokémon Festival - May 25th: Chaletwo's Arrival**

Mark just suddenly realized that he was awake. He couldn't recall waking up, or dreaming anything. That was a relief…

He reached for his watch and looked at it. It was seven in the morning. He sighed, closing his eyes. He didn't feel tired at all.

His stomach fluttered as he thought about what day it was. His father had told him to stay in his room, lie on his bed and pretend not to exist. That was probably the wisest thing to do. His voice of logic told him that over and over with convincing, step-by-step arguments.

And there was really no voice to speak against it, because there was no question about it. There was no way to logically argue that he should rather take the risk and see Chaletwo. There was just a power which could silence all logic immediately. And Mark knew that there was no way he could lie in a room and wait while the most powerful Pokémon in the world was appearing outside. He just couldn't.

He had a funny, numb feeling as he sat up in his bed and reached for his Pokéball belt at the foot of his bed. He took Sandslash's Pokéball – no particular reason why, he just felt like it – and dropped it lightly onto the floor. Sandslash came out of it and looked around.

"What is it?" he asked.

Mark shrugged. "Nothing… just felt like talking."

"About what?"

"Anything."

They didn't say anything for a while. Finally, Mark sighed.

"The other day when I got my trainer license… it made me think," he muttered. "I… do you really like me and the way I train you?"

"Well," Sandslash sighed, "there is something I wish you would do…"

"What?"

"Let us outside a bit more. We would all love to be able to run around freely for a bit sometimes when you're not doing anything. Pokémon don't like being stuffed inside Pokéballs for too long…"

"Yeah," Mark muttered. Neither of them said anything for a little while.

"I'm not sure I'm such a good trainer," Mark said quietly.

"You are," said Sandslash softly. "I am very grateful for you."

"Why?" Mark asked. "I'm lousy. Take May…"

"You are a much better trainer than her," Sandslash said immediately.

"But how?" Mark asked miserably. "Are you really being honest?"

"Well," the Pokémon began slowly, choosing his words carefully, "when you first caught me, I thought you weren't a very good trainer at all. I always lost and stuff…"

He trailed off, but then continued: "But then I slowly started realizing that… well, when you're a young Pokémon you think of a trainer as a method of getting strong and nothing more than that, which was why I wasn't happy to find that you didn't appear to have much more skill than I did by myself… but then I just started to realize that you cared and really hated not being better, because you felt like you were being a lousy trainer for us. And that… touched me. The reason Pokémon tolerate the limits set by being possessed by a trainer, and thus the reason Pokémon training can work in the first place, is that it usually gives Pokémon an opportunity to be stronger, but in the long run, Pokémon don't live for that. The reason Pokémon stay true to their trainers after the trainers retire and the Pokémon have reached the physical limits of their strength is that through a trainer's journey around the world, strong bonds are formed between trainer and Pokémon. This is what keeps Pokémon training alive and what makes it so magical – and this is why you are a better trainer than for example May, who is an extraordinarily good battler, but will never feel like anything more to her Pokémon than a temporary training stage in their lives. It is sad that so many Pokémon stay with a trainer for years, never realizing how much more there is to life with a trainer than battling…"

"I… wow," Mark just said.

"Take now for example," Sandslash said. "When you're a young, wild Pokémon, you don't expect your trainer to send you out just to talk to you. It's just not in your image of what you believe the purpose of a trainer is. When that happens, though, you realize that this is one of those moments that make you really appreciate your trainer, more than winning some battle will ever do. You're a great trainer, Mark. May is everything a Pokémon looks for in a trainer – you are much more."

Mark felt strangely warm. "Wow… thanks…"

"But as I said," Sandslash continued, "we'd really love some more outside time. You should try that sometime soon."

"I will. Thanks," Mark said, smiling.

* * *

Mark spent the day as it were his last. He didn't encounter May at all, but he was really feeling so much different that he was glad for that. He focused on enjoying himself, such as by buying a lot of candy, and had a crazy, hyperactive 'happy' attitude throughout the day. He had no idea why he wasn't more nervous. He just felt crazy.

That changed, however, when the time approached four o'clock. Suddenly the voices in his head were all screaming again; he wanted to go back to the Pokémon Center as he walked past it, but his feet wouldn't obey and continued towards the slowly gathering crowd of people in the patch of grass just outside the city borders.

A circle with an approximately five meter radius had been marked off in the grass. Nobody stepped into it. Mark felt numb as he found himself a place behind a few other people; he could peek out between them.

He waited for what seemed like an hour; then somebody in the crowd shouted "Ten!" The rest of the audience joined in the countdown.

"…Four! Three! Two! One!"

And suddenly Chaletwo just stood there in the middle of the circle.

He wasn't like Mark had expected. The illustrations in the book about the Ouen legendaries didn't capture the way he looked at all. Yes, he had the exact same, lavenderish-white skin as Mewtwo, same strong legs but thin arms, same bulgy toes and fingers, same distantly human torso and catlike head – and, indeed, his eyes were closed. But the artist had missed two important details. One was that it was clear that Chaletwo was looking through his eyelids; he didn't even distantly look like Mewtwo with closed eyes. The other was that Alan had been absolutely right: Chaletwo was obviously not evil. It wasn't hard to imagine him as evil from looking at the pictures, but Mark just realized suddenly that he had been wrong. He had no idea why, but it didn't seem like something to question. It was just true.

Everybody was immobilized as Chaletwo looked over the crowd. He then started turning slowly around to see the rest of the audience. Mark's heart hammered in his chest as the Legendary turned towards where he was.

And stopped.

The people in front of Mark automatically shifted to the sides before he knew, and he found himself frozen, looking straight at Chaletwo's closed eyes. After what seemed like an hour, during which Mark's mind and body seemed completely frozen, Chaletwo finally turned away.

Mark released his breath as Chaletwo was no longer looking at him.

_He's facing away… you could just throw the Master Ball…_

The voice spoke clearly out in Mark's head before he could help it. Chaletwo turned sharply back towards him; Mark stared desperately at the Legendary with only one thought in his head: _I don't want to die now._

Then Chaletwo's eyes opened.

The first thing that occurred to Mark was that the 'Good or Evil?' poster in the Pokémon Center had gotten Chaletwo's eyes completely wrong too. On the poster they had been bright yellow, but they were much more than that. They were terribly, blindingly, unearthly yellow, their extreme brightness piercing through his eyes like a knife, yet so oddly beautiful that he didn't want to look away.

Then all of a sudden, Mark felt like a burning hand was ripping his heart out through his chest. The pain was unthinkable; he screamed, but the sound seemed unrealistic and far away. He faintly heard an echo of other people's screaming as his vision faded to black, all except for the horribly bright eyes that were somehow the worst part of all…

* * *

Suddenly, it all stopped. The pain was gone. Everything around him was eerily dark and silent.

_What happened?_ he thought.

"Your consciousness has been separated from your body," answered a calm, telepathic voice. Mark somehow knew it was Chaletwo.

"What… wait a minute… are you saying I'm… dead?" he asked slowly.

"That's the basic idea, yes," Chaletwo replied.

"But I can't be dead!" Mark protested. "I'm right here!"

"Here is nowhere," was Chaletwo's confusing answer.

"That doesn't work," Mark argued. "We've got to be somewhere, if you're here."

"No," Chaletwo said firmly. "I took you to a place that doesn't exist. We're in a void of nothing."

"Why can't I see you?" Mark wondered.

"You are dead… a floating consciousness…" Chaletwo replied. "Without eyes, you cannot see."

"But how can I be dead? I mean, if my brain isn't here, how can I be thinking?"

Chaletwo sighed. "You are as dead as a brick, human. If you're still not convinced, tell me if you're breathing."

Mark waited a few seconds; he couldn't deny it.

"I don't think I am," he muttered. "Fine, I'm dead. But why did you kill me? And those other kids?"

"I needed to talk to you," Chaletwo answered.

Mark was getting slightly annoyed. "Can't you talk to people without killing them first?"

Chaletwo sighed. "No, I can't. Somebody can always overhear, and I can't teleport a living body to a place that doesn't exist – there's no oxygen here, so you would die. And humans are exceedingly easy to fool if you know how to do it. You always think in this 'If you can do something, you'll do it' fashion. Very stupid, of course, but makes it infinitely easier for me to convince you that I kill people for no reason without anybody getting even slightly suspicious. Humans are so blind, it's entertaining."

"Huh?" Mark asked confusedly.

"Well," Chaletwo said, "your parents will cry their eyes out, and those crazy people will write some more articles about how evil I am, but after a while your death will be accepted and you can peacefully walk around under a different name."

"What do you mean, walk around?" Mark asked, puzzled. "I can't walk around if I'm dead."

"You won't be dead anymore," said Chaletwo impatiently. "What good can a floating consciousness do even after you talk to it? I'm going to resurrect you after we finish talking. I just hope Molzapart is coming."

"Molzapart?" Mark was even more confused now. "Is Molzapart in this with you?"

"Of course," Chaletwo said like it was something obvious. "We're good friends… oh, here he is…"

Another telepathic voice sounded.

"Hmm… kinda foolish, that one, don't you think, Chaletwo?"

"Foolish is fine," Chaletwo replied. "Better, even. We don't want logic to get in our way. Molzapart, would you imagine some sight for him?"

Mark could suddenly see the two Legendaries as if it were a memory he was recalling in his mind. Molzapart looked like a golden-feathered bird with blue tips on his wing feathers, a long beak and a flame burning on his head. He also had a long, wavy tail feather that Mark recognized from Articuno.

"Wow," he said, astonished. "This is cool. Why didn't you let me see like this earlier, Chaletwo?"

Chaletwo sighed. "Only Molzapart can mess with memories."

"While poor widdle Chaletwo can just kill people," Molzapart teased.

Chaletwo glared at him. "Don't listen to him; I'm keeping balance in the world, while Molzapart's powers are just for playing around with."

"Oh, will you two just tell me what this is all about?" Mark said in frustration.

"Sorry," Molzapart apologized. "We got carried away. What we wanted to tell you is… well…" He looked at Chaletwo. "Where to begin?"

"See," Chaletwo began, "once every thousand years, a great disaster happens."

"Yes," Molzapart confirmed. "This disaster is called the War of the Legends. What happens is that the Legendary Pokémon will lose power, at different rates depending on how powerful they already are, until they are all equal and virtually powerless."

"Why does this happen?" asked Mark confusedly.

"Because of a Pokémon," Chaletwo replied, "which we have never seen, but is called the Destroyer. It appears to drain power from the Legendaries over the course of the last hundred or so of those thousand years, always faster and faster. When the Legendaries are almost out of power, the Destroyer sends the power multiplied back, and all this power basically finds all the Legendaries in the world again… and when they suddenly gain all this power, they all go insane somehow."

"_And they shall fight  
with all their might  
until but one draws breath.  
His conscious thought  
shall back be brought  
when all has met its death,_" Molzapart recited.

"Basically," Chaletwo explained, "once the Legendaries are all mad, they will seek each other out, kill everything in their path, and fight so viciously that everything in their path is destroyed. They will keep fighting until only one of them is left alive."

"And the one that is left alive," Molzapart said, "will then have the responsibility of creating new life and making the world whole again…"

"Wait a minute, how do I come into this?" Mark interrupted.

"We're getting to that," Chaletwo said. "The thing is… if there were no Legendaries to receive the power, the War of the Legends wouldn't happen. Molzapart and I started noticing our power loss around twenty years ago or so, so we talked to Mew about it. And Mew told us about this – he was the survivor of the last War of the Legends – and we became very concerned. So we asked Mew if we couldn't just get all the Legendaries to agree on being inside Pokéballs when this happened, as that might prevent it all from happening. Unfortunately, though, Mew just said some nonsense about not trying to avoid the inevitable – he is all into this fate stuff, you know – and refused to help us, and the other Legendaries we talked to weren't too happy about us telling them to get caught when Mew had forbidden us to tell them what it was really about. So we decided that we'd have to take them by force, and Molzapart started killing kids, erasing everybody's memories of them, and trying to get them to go out and try to capture the other Legendaries. However, we didn't have as much success as we'd have hoped – the kids were terrified of Legendaries and didn't want to come anywhere near them. Then recently we were getting really worried, and we had this idea of letting me try – after all, everybody knew where and when I appeared every year, and lots of people who loved Legendaries always came to watch me. So I could just look over the crowd and search for a longing to catch me… not very hard to find, but I found the strongest and killed that one. I was a lot more successful than Molzapart ever was."

Molzapart snorted. "Successful, maybe, but you've always done it rather sloppily. Too busy being a guardian to even attempt to cover your tracks. Look at the reputation that has gotten you."

"That was never the plan," Chaletwo snapped. "I have a protective aura that should be convincing everybody that my intentions are good. Humans are just too stupid to see it."

"And…" Molzapart looked at Mark, "the human thinks your way, even if successful, could use some improvement comfort-wise."

"I… I don't know what Death Stare feels like!" Chaletwo said defensively. "And I'm not 'too busy being a guardian'! That's what I exist to be!"

Molzapart snickered. "What a lovely guardian, with lethal weapons in his eye sockets."

"Chalenor had them too!" Chaletwo said sharply.

"Yeah, how come the guardian before you had lethal weapons in his eye sockets? Bit hypocritical if you ask me."

"_Don't you dare insult Chalenor in my ears!_"

Mark wasn't feeling that nice at all. Something about them arguing made the atmosphere very uncomfortable.

"Stop it," he thought desperately.

"_Are you asking to be attacked?_"

"_I'll show you an attack!_"

A dark purple orb formed between Chaletwo's hands while Molzapart took an electric blue glow.

"STOP!" Mark's mind screamed. The two Pokémon looked at each other; Chaletwo pressed the orb together into nothing and Molzapart's glow faded.

"Sorry," Chaletwo sighed. "This is all putting us under a lot of stress. We keep arguing… it's lucky this didn't turn into an early start of the War of the Legends."

"So basically," Mark said, getting back on topic, "you want me to somehow go out and magically catch all the Legendary Pokémon?"

"Well," Chaletwo said, "we got some unexpected help. Rick, the Cleanwater City Gym Leader, has simplified the problem immensely by catching a great many of the Legendaries for us. He released some of them, such as Suicune, but most he kept for further experiments. And the other trainers haven't been completely unsuccessful either – admittedly it's getting so close now that you're the last trainer we're asking for help. The Legendaries yet to be caught are Articuno, Mew, Entei, Suicune, the Waraider herd, the Color Dragons, and Rainteicune."

"How am I supposed to do that?" asked Mark miserably. "There's no way I can catch like twenty Legendaries before they all go mad! You're not even sure if it's going to work in the first place!"

Chaletwo sighed. "At least you can try."

"Why me?" Mark whined.

"Because you're a foolish little kid who confronts Legendaries when he knows he shouldn't," said Molzapart tiredly.

"We just need help here," Chaletwo said. "If you do it, we're probably still all going to die. But if you don't do it, we _are_ all going to die."

"I guess," Mark replied doubtfully.

"So, is that all?" Molzapart asked questioningly, turning to Chaletwo.

"I think so," Chaletwo answered. "Make him remember all of this before you leave, though."

Molzapart's eyes glowed deep blue and the memory of the conversation in Mark's mind was strengthened. He wasn't sure if it was really needed; he felt like he could never forget even the smallest detail of this. Then Molzapart flickered and disappeared, and Mark could no longer picture what was happening.

"Well," Chaletwo said, "any questions?"

"Why do you look like Mewtwo?" Mark asked, having wanted to ask this question during the whole conversation. "And why do you have a two in your name? Are you a super-clone?"

"That's not the kind of question I was hoping for," Chaletwo mumbled.

"Can't you still tell me?"

Chaletwo sighed deeply. "Before the last War of the Legends, there was a Pokémon called Chalenor – you heard me mention him when Molzapart and I were arguing, didn't you? – and Chalenor was like me. The Destroyer isn't alone, you know. There is a triangle. The Creator is Mew, because Mew survived the last War of the Legends. The Preserver is me, but used to be Chalenor. Chalenor had my powers… don't bring up why he could use Death Stare if he was the Preserver, because I don't know.

"Chalenor could travel through time, just like me, and once he happened to venture far into the future and find Mewtwo there. Mewtwo was interested in Chalenor's time when he heard that Mew had existed then – Mew and Chalenor were good friends.

"So Chalenor agreed to take Mewtwo to his time, but what they didn't know was that at that time, the War of the Legends was rapidly approaching. And while Mewtwo was still there, the Destroyer made all the Legendaries mad – including Mewtwo.

"Chalenor died in the War of the Legends, like everything else. So did Mewtwo. Only Mew was left alive. When his madness wore off, Mew found Chalenor's body and realized that the Preserver was no more… but his left eye was lying somewhere and was still loaded with power, and in a desperate attempt to save everything that could be saved, Mew transferred the life force contained in the eye to the nearest whole body – Mewtwo's – and created new life in it… that was me. Chalenor's powers in Mewtwo's body…

"I was Mew's first creation, and helped creating the new Pokémon under Mew's supervision… then I took over Chalenor's role as the Preserver and became a guardian of life… so Mew called me Chaletwo because I was Chalenor's heir, and in honour of Mewtwo whose body I was created in."

"Wow…" Mark was surprised; nothing he had ever thought of had come close to any of that. He had always been stuck in the clone theory.

"Can I ask another question?" he asked.

"Fire away."

"Can I tell somebody about all this?"

Chaletwo took a bit of time to think, but finally answered: "You should not flag it – the Legendaries might hear it. If you really trust somebody, you can tell them, but Molzapart is really getting too weak for the trouble of mass memory modification. Oh, and talk to Ash Ketchum – that's very important. I'll resurrect you a little while in the future so you'll be pretty much forgotten – Molzapart will help with that too. At first when you're back to life, you'll be unconscious, but when you wake up, Molzapart and I will be in your Pokéballs and might communicate with you occasionally for as long as we have the power to."

"Is that all I need to know?" Mark asked nervously.

"Should be, yes," Chaletwo replied.

"I'm never going to manage this," Mark muttered.

"Just remember that you're our last hope…"

Mark felt himself fading away. The last thing he heard was Chaletwo's echoing voice:

"You… have… to… try…"


	27. Dead or Alive

**Chapter 26: Dead or Alive**

Branches rustled. Taillow chirped. Beedrill buzzed.

Mark lay with his eyes closed. The stinging grass underneath him tickled the back of his neck. His hands grasped the cold, dewy blades. He inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh, earthy smell.

Mark felt his heart beat steadily in his chest. His whole body ached, but he felt wonderful. He was alive. Funny how he had never appreciated it before.

After a few minutes, he opened his eyes slowly to look at the roof of leaves above. He sat up and blinked a few times, wondering where he could be; it was clearly the middle of a forest of some sort.

"Hello, Mark."

He sprang to his feet in surprise when he heard the familiar, soft voice. It belonged to the only person who could appear out of nowhere like that: Mitch. He was leaning against a tree, facing away from Mark, and looking into the air as he tended to. Mark walked slowly up to him.

"I guess we're on the same boat now," Mitch continued calmly.

"What do you mean?" Mark asked, leaning against another nearby tree. Mitch didn't look surprised to see him at all.

"We're both dead," said Mitch with a faint smile.

Mark was puzzled. "How?"

"Seven years ago," Mitch said slowly, still staring into the air, "ten-year-old Richard Brown started his Pokémon journey with a Venonat. He wandered into the Black Desert, encountered a Scorplack, and was tragically killed on the first day of his quest."

It took Mark a few seconds to realize that Mitch was talking about himself.

"A few months later," Mitch continued, "a confused teenager named Mitch entered the city with a bad case of amnesia and no identification whatsoever. He looked a little bit similar to poor Richard, although a lot thinner, with more hair and different-colored eyes. He just muttered senseless things about death the first days, but then his memory started coming back and he remembered his name and that he was going to study Biology in Green Town. He did, and later went on to study poisons exclusively. He got a job as a Gym Leader in Scorpio City."

Mitch paused for a little while, and finally went on:

"Richard Brown doesn't like him at all, but what can poor Richard do? Long ago he cloaked himself with Mitch, and now thrives on the disguise…"

"So you're… you're seventeen?" Mark asked slowly, still digesting the information. Mitch suddenly looked into his face; his shiny, gray eyes didn't seem to blink at all.

"Richard is afraid of Mitch. He fears this man who has seen so much death, so much pain, so much sorrow. It is too much for a young boy. He never got to grow into an adult, having hidden away for so long."

Mitch still stared into Mark's eyes. He was starting to understand why Mitch liked to look up when he talked; something about his gaze seemed to disconnect Mark from his surroundings and prevent him from looking away, giving Mitch's words odd importance. A cold shiver ran down his spine as he realized what Mitch's eyes reminded him of: Chaletwo's. Like a weaker, non-fatal version.

"I'm not real," Mitch said softly, looking up again to Mark's relief. "I'm a dead boy, and a made-up character. Do not make my mistake. Cloaking one's true identity will never cause anything but trouble."

They were silent for a long while. Mitch's lips finally curled into one of his faint smiles.

"You've heard about the animal world?"

"Yes," Mark replied, not sure why Mitch was asking. He had learned about it in History – it was another world that had been discovered 874 years ago, marking the start of the calendar used now. After nearly 200 years, the Pokémon world scientists managed to open a gateway between them. The humans in the two worlds had apparently shared their technology and something until the animal world was destroyed.

"I think humans came from there," Mitch continued.

"What?" Mark asked in disbelief. "Humans were here long before that."

"I think that wasn't the first time a gateway between the two worlds opened. Because you see, it makes perfect sense. Humans are animals. All other animals in this world were moved here from the animal world. And what are the odds that as complicated a species as humans would evolve in two separate worlds?"

Mark nodded; that made sense.

"Look here…"

Mitch moved away from the tree and knelt down.

"This tree is all life. I'll put the most basic life forms at the bottom, here at the roots, and they advance as they go up. We have viruses here at the bottom."

He ran his finger a little bit up the tree's trunk, stopping at a speck.

"Bacteria. Still basic."

He slid his hand slowly up the tree. "We go on… we come to fungi, plants and finally animals, which humans are among…"

At this point he was pointing at a spot at his chest level or so.

"But all the way up here…"

He moved his hand dramatically as far as he could reach without standing on tiptoe.

"…Pokémon."

He looked straight into Mark's eyes again, his eyes shining brightly.

"Pokémon are powerful, Mark. Extremely. If other animals came here with the humans, they landed in direct competition with the Pokémon, and didn't survive. Humans, on the other hand, figured out that they had one advantage over the Pokémon, and used it. They knew that their only hope to fight Pokémon was with other Pokémon, and they managed to cooperate with them. Very clever indeed. But when you think about it, the Pokémon's end of the deal is still cleverer. They weren't driven into the deal by any need. They could have wiped us out if the wanted – but they didn't. They figured it would be for the good of everyone to make the deal."

"I never thought about it that way," Mark admitted.

Mitch smiled slightly. "I didn't expect you to. Farewell, Mark… remember what I told you."

And with that, Mitch turned and walked away, only to disappear as soon as Mark took his eyes off him.

"Chaletwo?" Mark muttered, looking down at his Pokéballs.

"_Yes?_" answered the telepathic voice.

"Where am I and how far in the future?"

"_The middle of Ruxido, two weeks after your death,_" Chaletwo said. "_Molzapart did a slight mass memory modification and now everybody's memories of you are buried a bit deeper. They will find you distantly familiar, but won't remember who you are unless they're specifically reminded of it. The people who knew you well will still recognize you if they get a good enough look at you, though._"

"All right," said Mark nervously. "Are my Pokémon still in my Pokéballs?"

"_Yes,_" Chaletwo replied. "_I made a copy of your body and clothes before you were buried and snatched your Pokéballs before your Pokémon were released. Naturally, Molzapart helped by giving the person who was supposed to release them a fake memory of doing it._"

Mark smiled. "Thanks."

Chaletwo chuckled. "_No problem, Mr. Last Hope. And remember to talk to Ash Ketchum; Green Town is to your left._"

Mark took a deep breath, turned left and walked as straight as he could. As the trees thinned, he heard a voice he recognized:

"Pupitar, just Thrash the stupid thing!"

"May!" Mark called, running in the voice's direction. He caught a glimpse of blue hair behind a tree and soon the whole of May, hissing angrily at her blue cocoon as a yellow and black-striped Beedrill fluttered frantically away. She looked blankly at him and first, then furrowed her brow like she was trying to remember something.

"Mark!" she suddenly realized. Then she shook her head. "Oh, never mind. I thought you were somebody else."

Mark walked up to her; she stared at him.

"You can't be…" she said slowly.

"It's me, I have to tell you…" Mark started.

"But who got killed?" she interrupted blankly.

"That was also me," Mark said, "but let me explain…"

May raised her eyebrow. "Have you been out in the sun for too long?"

"No!" Mark yelled in frustration. "I'm trying to…"

"You can't both be dead and be here."

"SHUT UP!" Mark screamed. She raised both of her eyebrows this time.

"Thank you," he said angrily before continuing to tell her all of the clear memories of his conversation with Chaletwo and Molzapart. Unfortunately, May was about the worst listener imaginable. She interrupted every few sentences, usually with something he was just coming to, and after he had finally struggled through the whole thing, she raised her eyebrow yet again. That, Mark had learned, was never a good sign.

"That sounded like something you'd think of while high on weed," she said.

"It's true!" Mark said hotly.

"Then prove it… send out Molzapart and Chaletwo."

Mark was about to yell something angry at her when another voice broke in:

"_He's not lying._"

_Chaletwo,_ Mark thought with relief.

"Chaletwo?" May asked shakily.

"_Indeed,_" the Legendary replied. "_He can not send us out of the Pokéballs. It is too risky as the other Legendaries might spot us. And now that you have learned about all of this, we have no choice but to erase your memory or..._"

"I'm not getting my bloody memory erased!" May hissed. "He decided to tell me, for crying out loud!"

"_Either that or you help him,_" Chaletwo said simply.

"Fine, I'll help him!" May snapped. "Are we going to see Ash Ketchum, then?"

"Yeah," Mark replied. Getting her to help was why he had gone to talk to her in the first place; he wasn't sure why, but he enjoyed her company.

* * *

They set off on an uneventful journey towards Green Town. They didn't meet anybody on the way, although Mark was constantly worrying about it. May seemed rather grumpy; she was walking rather fast, staring straight ahead and not talking to Mark – although he wasn't really trying to start a conversation either.

When they finally reached Alan's house, May knocked on the door. Mark stood slightly behind her, rather nervous about Alan's reaction to seeing him. They heard footsteps and the door opened.

Alan looked uninterestedly at May for a second, and then his gaze ran over to Mark. Alan stared at him for a few seconds, his mouth falling slightly open.

"You're dead," he said blankly.

"I'll explain inside," said Mark tiredly as Alan stepped aside, still staring at him. They walked into the kitchen.

"I saw it with my own eyes…" Alan continued weakly. "Chaletwo opened his eyes and… I'll eat Pamela if it wasn't you…"

"Can't you see he's no more dead than you are?" said May annoyed as they sat down

"I… I'm not dead," Alan said confusedly.

"Let's just pretend both of us are alive for now, okay?" Mark suggested. "I'll explain."

And he started telling the whole story again. This time it was significantly easier, since Alan listened quietly without interrupting (except for one "I told you Chaletwo wasn't evil!").

"Wow," Alan breathed as Mark finished.

"So…" Mark said hesitatingly, "are you having problems believing me?"

Alan shrugged. "Well, I really should have known. Chaletwo had to have a reason to do that. And you're alive, which makes it sound sensible enough."

Mark almost laughed at how different Alan's reaction was from May's, but he held it back.

"Um, where's your father?" he asked.

"Who, me?" came a voice from behind him. Mark turned around to find Ash walking into the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks as he spotted Mark.

"Ah," he then said. Mark and Alan stared at him with a puzzled expression. Ash slowly sat down.

"You were killed by Chaletwo, weren't you?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Mark replied, slightly confused.

"You won't need to explain," Ash sighed. "Molzapart told me years ago about the War of the Legends and requested of me to try to catch some of the Legendaries, but as much as I'd have liked to try, I was extremely busy; if I cancelled everything and went on a journey suddenly, it would look very suspicious. He suggested killing me and bringing me back, but I didn't want to because of Alan, who was young at the time. I also pointed out that there was no guarantee the kids couldn't do it themselves in a few years. So he gave in and told me that they would send somebody to me as a last resort if they were getting really desperate."

"Why?" Alan asked. "Why you?"

Ash smiled slightly. "I've had extraordinary luck with Legendaries. Molzapart said it was some sort of a subconscious connection that brought us together."

"So you're going to come with me to make it easier to find them?" Mark asked slowly.

"That's the basic idea, yes," Ash sighed. "Of course I'm still busy, but I can make some kind of an excuse since we're running short on time."

"Dad," said Alan suddenly, "do you think I have that too?"

"Have what?" Ash asked.

"That subconscious connection with Legendaries."

"_Hmm,_" came Chaletwo's telepathic voice, apparently having listened to everything, "_we never thought of that. Have there been any signs of something like that in the boy?_"

"Rainteicune," said Ash, looking at his son.

"Maybe I should go in your place," Alan said. "After all, you're busy and stuff. Much easier for me to go."

"_It's worth a try,_" Chaletwo commented. "_After all, a 15-year-old suddenly deciding to leave on a journey sounds a lot likelier than a 37-year-old._"

Ash raised his eyebrow. "You never struck me as the type to have any interest in saving the world, to tell you the truth, Alan."

Alan shrugged. "Sounds more fun than sitting here itching to know whether the world is going to be saved while thinking about how my father is yet again proving how much better he is than me."

There was a short, uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry, Alan," Ash sighed. "It would probably be better if you went."

"It's okay, Dad," Alan muttered.

Suddenly he grinned and ran upstairs. A few seconds passed; Mark, May and Ash gave each other puzzled looks until Alan came sprinting down the stairs again, holding a battered Pokémon League cap. Ash suddenly cracked up.

"Can't go on an adventure without Dad's old cap, can I?" Alan laughed, putting it on. The white front of it was decorated with a green, fancy L-shaped Pokémon League symbol. Mark recognized it as the famous cap Ash Ketchum had journeyed with and smiled slightly.

"Well," Ash said cheerfully, "let's pack."

* * *

The three of them left the house, waving goodbye to Ash. After walking only a few steps, Mark stopped.

"What now?" he asked emptily. "Where am I supposed to go? You have a subconscious connection with Legendaries, but if it's subconscious, we don't know where we should go to find them."

"Well," Alan said, "don't they say the best way to find something is not to look for it? That certainly seems to apply here. I wasn't looking for Rainteicune, and Dad wasn't looking for the Legendaries he found."

"But what, does that mean I should just continue along my merry way and battle Gym Leaders like nothing ever happened?"

Alan shrugged. "For example."

"I can't just go around battling Gym Leaders when the world is ending!" Mark said in frustration.

"Got a better idea?"

Mark fell silent. It didn't feel right at all to just continue his journey.

"Suicune," he suddenly realized. "Suicune always appears at the Lake of Purity. We should hurry there and then we can worry about Gym battles."

"The fastest way to Cleanwater from here is through Stormy Town, which actually is the next city with a Gym," Alan pointed out. "You could as well grab a badge there as we pass through, if you did go with the badge thing."

"But…" Mark protested.

"Look, Mark," May interrupted, "whatever you're going to do, I want my badges. I'm going to Stormy Town and challenging the bloody Gym whether you like it or not, and if you're not going to get your badge too, that's your problem."

"Err…" Mark sensed that he was alone; deep down, he also wanted to get the rest of his badges, since he had been through the trouble of getting half of them already.

"Fine. But I don't even have the badge from the Green Town Gym yet."

"Go ahead and get it," said May. "I can just talk to Alan or something. There's a bench over there."

Mark sighed as they walked over there. He waved absent-mindedly and started walking towards the Green Town Stadium, where the Gym battles supposedly took place. He couldn't help feeling he was actually more determined and confident as a trainer now than he had been before – he _wanted_ to continue his journey and compete in the Ouen League, although that wasn't what he was supposed to be focusing on.

Why couldn't that have happened earlier?

He nervously walked into a small building beside the stadium that had a rusty sign saying GYM CHALLENGES HERE above the door. It contained a small table, a coffee machine and two girls sitting by the table. One looked around eighteen years old, and was stunningly beautiful, with long, dark hair and wearing a green outfit. The other looked maybe twelve or thirteen, had light green hair in pigtails and wore a white T-shirt depicting various Grass Pokémon.

"Hello?" said the older one in a bored voice.

"Er, I'm here for a badge," Mark said.

"Of course you're here for a badge," she replied snappily. "Why else would you be here?"

"Um," Mark said unsurely, a bit surprised by her reactions, "I guess."

"So anyway, junior trainer first," she said lazily as the younger girl stood up and gestured for Mark to follow her. He walked hesitantly with her out of the building and into the huge arena, where they took their places.

"Three on three. Ready, go, Tangela!" said the junior trainer in a high-pitched voice. She threw a Pokéball into the arena, which popped open as it landed on the ground and allowed a weird Pokémon to take shape – Mark was reminded of a bundle of turquoise spaghetti with two round eyes in the middle. It didn't help that for some reason, it was wearing bright red shoes.

Mark took one of his Pokéballs off his belt.

"Charizard, go!"

He hurled it forward and a red beam of light materialized into the orange dragon. He had heard that Tangela were rather weak, but he would rather stay on the safe side.

"Tangela, Sleep Powder!" yelled the girl.

"Charizard, beat your wings to blow it away!"

Two of the vines that covered her Pokémon's body shot forward and held Charizard's wings in place while it shook itself vigorously, causing a cloud of green, sparkling dust to be released into the air. Charizard, rather than risking to inhale the powder while attempting to attack the vines, shut his mouth tightly and turned his head away in order not to be affected by the spores; unfortunately he soon relaxed in the Tangela's grip and sank down to the floor, fast asleep.

"No!" Mark shouted in frustration. "Wake up!"

"Tangela, Slam!"

The Tangela started smashing its vines into Charizard's body like whips, muttering "Tan-gela! Tan-gela!" as it did. After a bit of beating while Mark tried desperately to wake his Pokémon, Charizard's eye twitched slightly and then opened. He got up with a roar, took a deep breath and spewed a blast of bright flames at the Grass Pokémon. It stood there charred for a second, but then collapsed.

"Tangela, return," said the girl. "Sunflora, do it!"

She sent out a peculiar flower Pokémon. The petals were bright yellow, surrounding the happy-looking face, which Mark found creepy for some reason. Then it had a green stalk-like body with leaves for arms, which it was currently waving around like it was trying to fly or something.

"Sunflora, Sunny Day!"

The flower sang a sweet note and the sunlight above intensified greatly; the arena grew very hot.

_What the heck?_ Mark thought, stroking sweat off his forehead. _Why would she be powering up my Pokémon's attacks? And Solarbeam isn't exactly the attack of choice to use on a Charizard…_

"Flamethrower!" he shouted, and the dragon fired a great stream of flames at the Sunflora. It was engulfed in it completely and shrieked in pain; when the fire cleared, it was already down.

The girl silently recalled her Pokémon and took out the third and last ball.

"Go, Jumpluff!"

The Pokémon that came out was ball-shaped and blue, with two tiny legs. Its arms, however, had puffy cotton-like balls on the ends, almost as big as the body. It also had a similar cotton ball sticking out of its head. Mark found it rather freaky, especially when it just floated into the air like a balloon.

"Err… Charizard, another Flamethrower," he ordered. Charizard shot forth yet another Flamethrower, but Mark was surprised to discover that the Jumpluff was unbelievably fast. It zoomed easily out of the way in the air, agile as a Taillow, and stuck its tongue out at Charizard.

"Jumpluff, Cotton Spore!" the girl yelled. Again, the Grass Pokémon moved quickly; it shook its puffs, releasing a cloud of cotton-like material that covered Charizard. He coughed and was having a rather hard time moving in it, but he flapped his wings and managed to blow it away.

"Jumpluff, use a Poisonpowder!"

"Jump!" the Pokémon cried, shaking its arms again. This time the puffs released purple dust.

"Charizard, fly out of the way! Don't inhale it!" Mark shouted desperately. Charizard took off from the ground, but the Jumpluff followed him, still at this bizarre speed. It was faster than the dragon and caught rapidly up with him; Charizard blasted a Flamethrower over his shoulder but the Jumpluff dodged it easily and then suddenly dove down and covered Charizard's nostrils with the cotton balls. He coughed and spluttered, but it wouldn't let go; he breathed a bit of fire that lit the puffs and Jumpluff shrieked in pain before letting itself float a bit farther into the air, waving its arms frantically to put out the fire. Meanwhile, Charizard landed, looking rather sick and in pain. Mark figured that he had inhaled some of Jumpluff's poisonous spores.

"Charizard, return," he sighed, absorbing the dragon back into the ball. He reached for another Pokéball.

"Scyther, finish it!"

The mantis emerged from the ball and flew into the air, raising his scythes. He took aim at the grass Pokémon and shot towards it, but it darted out of the way. Scyther looked around, and then suddenly shot in the opposite direction.

The junior trainer looked surprised. "Sleep Powder," she ordered with a hint of doubt. The Jumpluff darted towards Scyther, but slowly the sunlight started fading and the Grass Pokémon slowed down…

This seemed to be what Scyther had been waiting for; he shot towards Jumpluff and started slashing it like mad. It shrieked and released a cloud of green spores in self-defense; Scyther coughed and attempted to slow himself down as he crashed to the ground. Mark looked at his Pokémon with a puzzled expression as he realized that Scyther's eyes were still open.

The mantis winked.

"Jumpluff, Sunny Day!" the trainer ordered triumphantly as the Jumpluff started doing a weird dance and chanting something to get the bright sunlight from earlier back. Scyther lay completely still, pretending to be asleep.

"And now, Leech Seed!"

"Pluff!" squeaked the Pokémon, firing two dark green seeds from its puffs. They embedded themselves into Scyther's exoskeleton and then vines started growing up towards Jumpluff. They wrapped themselves tightly around the Pokémon.

Scyther suddenly rose up. He stretched out his scythes and then started spinning around in marvellous dance of flashing movements. At the same time, the Leech Seed vines wrapped around him and literally reeled Jumpluff in. The Grass Pokémon desperately tried to get away, but was bound by the powerful vines and pulled closer and closer to the mantis.

"Scy," Scyther growled as he stopped, the Jumpluff having been dragged almost up to him. Then he slashed it powerfully, and the Grass Pokémon slipped into unconsciousness.

"Jumpluff, return," said the girl, recalling her Jumpluff and the Leech Seed in a beam of red. "I'll fetch the Leader for you."

Mark smiled at Scyther and recalled him. The junior trainer hadn't been too hard – after all, he had defeated her three Pokémon using two of his – but the leader was sure to be harder.

The older girl entered, holding a Pocket Healer. She gave it to Mark without words and walked over to her place on the arena as Mark put Charizard and Scyther's Pokéballs into it, healing them.

"My name is Flora and I am the leader of the Green Town Gym," she announced as Mark put the Pocket Healer down on the ground. "However, there are a few things you should know."

Mark nodded.

"Firstly," Flora began, "I hate perfume."

"Huh?" Mark asked confusedly, not sure what that was supposed to mean. She ignored him.

"I train Grass Pokémon because they can use powders, damn it! Why do I always have to be met with that stupid stereotype? I'm not a flower hippie, get it?"

"Um, okay," Mark replied unsurely.

"Secondly," Flora added in an even more disgusted voice, "my name is my parents' fault, not mine! It's not MY fault if my parents happened to give me a name that sounds like a pun! I hate it! I hate it all!"

She kicked a rock off the arena and took a few deep breaths.

"Now," she said after calming a bit down, "let's get this damn battle over with. You're probably going to win like everybody else, because as the fifth Gym Leader, I can't use Pokémon past a certain level, but nobody's limiting you from training as much as you like. And Grass Pokémon have a lot of weaknesses, so people just stroll through here with their Fire or Ice or Flying Pokémon, just because Gyms are forced to have some kind of a strict theme to the Pokémon they use. Heck, I could just give you the damn badge right now, because we all know that even if you lose, you're just going to train a bit, come back and eventually beat me. I don't know why I even bother…"

During this speech her voice went back to that disgusted one, but now she paused.

"Oh, wait, I do know." She smirked and took out a Pokéball. "It's fun."

Flora hurled the ball forward. "Go, Victreebel!"

The red energy from the ball formed into a gigantic pitcher plant with two evil eyes and a heart-shaped leaf draping over the fanged, gaping mouth. Mark shuddered; it was another one of those horror-movie Pokémon. He remembered seeing a gory scene with one crunching up a Growlithe sometime on TV.

Mark took out Charizard's ball. Using Pocket Healers felt odd; it didn't seem like Charizard could suddenly be at full health again.

"Go, Charizard!"

The dragon materialized from the ball and took off the ground, watching Victreebel closely.

"Charizard, Flamethrower!"

"Victreebel, Sludge Bomb!"

Flames formed in Charizard's throat as he got ready to send a blast of fire at the pitcher plant; the Victreebel meanwhile shut its mouth with its leaf and shut its eyes.

Charizard fired the Flamethrower and the silky flames struck the Grass Pokémon. It let out a deep sound but as soon as the fire cleared, the singed Victreebel lifted its leaf from its mouth and spewed out deep purple acid straight at Charizard. The dragon didn't have time to dodge and was stricken by the blast; he was thrown backwards in the air and needed a bit of time to regain his balance. Flora seized the opportunity.

"Stockpile!"

Mark watched in disbelief as the Pokémon started munching on its own leaf. Stockpile, Stockpile… there had been an entire lesson devoted to it in Battling Strategies at school, but as usual he didn't remember any of it. He had been too busy drawing an Arcanine. He silently cursed his lack of attention in school.

Charizard, having landed with a sickly look on his face, stumbled back towards Victreebel, flapping his wings in an unsuccessful attempt to fly.

"Victreebel, Spit Up!"

The pitcher plant suddenly bent forward, aiming its rounded mouth at Charizard like a cannon, and spat out green goo – what Mark presumed to be the remains of the leaf mixed with some acids. It hit the dragon right in the face as he seemed too sick to dodge; he roared in pain.

"Charizard, don't give up!" Mark shouted desperately as Charizard shook his head to get the disgusting slime off his muzzle. If a Fire Pokémon lost to Flora's first Grass type, Mark had practically no hope of winning with his other Pokémon that didn't have a type advantage.

He suddenly had an idea, seeing Victreebel back in its upright position and remembering how it had closed its mouth with its leaf earlier when Charizard attacked. "Charizard, if you possibly can, fly above it."

The dragon managed to take off unsteadily.

"Victreebel, Sludge Bomb!"

"Charizard, Flamethrower straight down! Now, before it attacks!" Mark yelled quickly, hoping for Charizard to make the first move. His first Pokémon didn't fail him; Charizard fired a bright tongue of flames downwards into the pitcher plant's mouth. It let out a scream of pain, but still managed to retaliate with another spurt of purple acid. Charizard crashed into the ground, his eyes closed; Mark got that stinging feeling of having driven him too far as he recalled his Pokémon.

His hand almost instinctively reached for Scyther's Pokéball, but he stopped at the last second. No, this wasn't working. He'd have to try to be a bit clever.

Mark thought hard; meanwhile Flora commanded her Victreebel to use Stockpile again and it started eating one of the large arm-like leaves on its side by flexing its body. What Pokémon did he have again? Charizard, Scyther, Jolteon, Dragonair, Sandslash and Gyarados. Wait, hadn't he switched one of them for Leta? He took out his Pokédex and ran it past his Pokéballs. He didn't have Dragonair.

Sandslash was pretty much crossed out; he was weak to Grass attacks. Since this was a five-on-five, he would probably be using all his other Pokémon. But what about Leta? She was so low-leveled.

"Victreebel, Swallow!"

Mark looked up; Victreebel swallowed the leaf if had been chewing and looked a bit healthier afterwards. Something in his mind abruptly told him to wait a second.

Pokémon were restricted to using four moves in official matches like Gym battles.

Victreebel had used Sludge Bomb, Stockpile, Spit Up and Swallow… four moves. No more surprises from Victreebel if Flora played by the rules…

What was more, this meant Sandslash wasn't useless. Mark smiled; he did know that Ground types were resistant to poisons.

"Go, Sandslash!"

The pangolin emerged from the ball and stretched. He blinked, eying his opponent more with interest than fear.

Mark felt a little guilty for the strategy that struck his mind; something told him it was a bit nasty. But hey, if getting a Victreebel's saliva all over one's face wasn't nasty, what was?

"Sandslash," Mark ordered, "tear up its leaf."

Both the heart-shaped one that had covered the mouth and the right arm-leaf had already fallen victim to the pitcher plant's own attack; Sandslash dashed towards the left one with his sharp claws in the air and started slashing at it. The Victreebel shook itself violently and sprayed a shower of acid over the two Pokémon, but Sandslash didn't seem to be affected very much by it. Within seconds, Victreebel's last leaf was in shreds.

No more Stockpile.

And if Mark remembered correctly, Spit Up and Swallow didn't do anything unless the Pokémon Stockpiled first.

"Damn you!" Flora hissed. "Victreebel, Sludge Bomb that thing! Swallow it whole! Whatever!"

The Grass Pokémon hesitated, not sure what to make of those orders, and Sandslash grabbed the opportunity to stab all three of his right claws into Victreebel's body. It screamed in pain and twisted around in agony for a second, letting loose another spray of acids, but then fell limp.

"Oh great, return." Flora rolled her eyes as the red beam from the Pokéball recalled the pitcher plant. "Bellossom, do your thing."

She sent out a very small, cute Pokémon. It appeared to be wearing a skirt of leaves in different shades of green; two red flowers decorated the top of its head.

"Bellossom, Sunny Day!"

Mark wanted to smack himself for bringing Charizard out first even right after a demonstration of Grass Pokémon becoming annoying with Sunny Day.

"Sandslash, Slash it quickly!"

Bellossom chanted something and made the sun brighter as the pangolin ran forward with his claws raised. Sandslash slashed across the Bellossom's body, leaving three red streaks; the Grass Pokémon squealed in pain.

"Bellossom, Solarbeam!"

A golden orb of light formed on Bellossom's head, and then it bent forward, pointing straight at Sandslash. It fired a great beam of solar power that sent Sandslash skidding backwards and left burn marks on his hide.

"Sandslash, try to…"

"Another Solarbeam!"

Bellossom immediately fired a second beam, and Sandslash couldn't take it anymore. He tumbled backwards and collapsed.

"Sandslash, return," Mark muttered. This time he didn't have to think. "Scyther, do it!"

The green mantis came out of the Pokéball and smiled slightly at the sight of his opponent. Flora hissed.

"Okay, do a Fury Cutter!"

Scyther instantly took off into the air and swooped down towards Bellossom, his scythes glowing slightly green.

"Bellossom, Stun Spore!"

Bellossom was incredibly fast and shook itself to release a cloud of yellow, sparkling spores. Scyther couldn't avoid inhaling them as he struck Bellossom with his glowing scythe. The paralysis came quickly into effect, making Scyther's flight more irregular. He managed to get down and strike the Grass Pokémon one more time with his scythe, but then he gave up and landed with difficulty.

"Bellossom, Synthesis."

"No!" Mark protested, but the plant closed its eyes in concentration to absorb sunlight and heal its wounds. Great. Now all the effort had been for nothing.

"Scyther, um…" Mark blushed as he realized that he honestly wasn't sure what Scyther could do. He had only made him use Fury Cutter and Slash.

"Wing Attack?" Mark said unsurely. Scyther nodded and ran towards Bellossom to beat it with his glossy wings. The Grass Pokémon cried out in pain.

"Bellossom, Synthesis," Flora simply said, and the plant healed itself again.

"Scyther, try attacking it a few more times," Mark ordered, forming a plan. Scyther was having a bit of a hard time since he was still paralyzed; once he tried to slash but wasn't fast enough and Bellossom shot out of the way. Hitting with Wing Attack was a bit easier. Flora just kept telling her Pokémon to heal itself, but Mark saw how Bellossom was clearly growing tired and it was taking more effort to use Synthesis.

"One more Wing Attack," Mark finally said, and Scyther (who was also growing tired) struck Bellossom with his wings again. Bellossom was clearly getting too fatigued to heal itself.

"Slash!"

Scyther growled, bringing his scythe down on the Bellossom's body and cutting some leaves off its skirt. It squeaked like a plush toy and moved no more.

Flora sighed and recalled it. "Venusaur, go."

Mark looked at Scyther and bit his lip. The huge, green, dinosaur-like toad that Flora sent out was healthily enjoying the sun as the flower on its back released a sweet aroma, but the mantis was paralyzed and additionally the heat didn't seem very good for him. He was panting weakly.

"Scyther…" Mark paused, "do you think you're going to be able to get a hit in?"

Scyther didn't answer; then he suddenly took flight, his scythes glowing lime green as he slashed across his opponent's face. The green glow steadily grew as the Venusaur tried to back away or bite and the mantis kept cutting it. Then the paralysis kicked in; Scyther's body stiffened up and he collapsed.

"Scyther, come back," Mark sighed. Two of his best Grass-beating Pokémon were down, as well as the only one who was resistant to Poison. And Leta… what use could she be? She was still much lower-leveled than the rest of his team. He would have to leave her out. That left him with Gyarados and Jolteon against three Pokémon that Flora had left.

Well, Jolteon had Pin Missile, didn't he? That would be good against pure Grass Pokémon, but not especially so against Venusaur if he remembered correctly. Using Gyarados would be his best bet.

"Um…" he asked hesitatingly, "can't you open that pool?"

Flora smirked, clearly figuring that if Mark was resorting to Water Pokémon, the win was in the bag. She took a small remote like the one Ash had used to open the pool in the Attack Approval and pressed a button. A square-shaped section of the floor sank down below the rest and then slid under it, revealing the Water Pokémon pool.

"Go, Gyarados!"

Flora slapped her forehead at the sight of the blue sea monster, probably realizing he wasn't weak to Grass attacks.

"Damn it," she swore. "Venusaur, Solarbeam!"

Before either Mark or Venusaur managed to do anything, Gyarados lifted his head and roared loudly. In an instant, the bright sunlight faded; dark clouds started gathering on the sky instead, blocking out the sun. Venusaur started charging a Solarbeam as the first raindrops fell; Flora's expression resembled an annoyed Tauros more than a human girl.

"Gyarados, Dragon Beam!" Mark shouted over the sound of the rain, wrapping himself in his jacket. Venusaur fired the Solarbeam, but in the rain it was just a pathetic little beam of light that Gyarados barely seemed to notice as he closed his eyes and started graying. The familiar red beam was fired from the sea monster's eyes at the Grass Pokémon; it was too slow to even attempt to dodge and was blasted with the beam. It roared; small icicles formed on its body and it became unable to move within seconds.

Flora let out an array of swear words directed at Gyarados, the stupidity of the Attack Approval and being wet from some stupid Rain Dance.

"Venusaur, return," she said and took out her second-last Pokéball. "Go, Meganium!"

Out of the ball came a large light green dinosaur of sorts with a large head. It also had antennae and bright red flower petals in a circle around its neck.

"Meganiii!" it cried out in a high-pitched, feminine voice at Gyarados. His expression remained the same.

"Gyarados," Mark told him, "use another Dragon Beam."

"Meganium, use a Light Screen!"

As Gyarados closed his eyes and turned greyscale, Meganium's eyes glowed deep golden and a translucent yellow shield of energy formed all around it. Gyarados shot forth his attack, but the Light Screen absorbed most of the beam, rendering it relatively harmless before it struck the dinosaur.

"Now, Meganium, use a Sunny Day!"

Meganium looked at the sky with a small cry, but as the rain started subsiding, Gyarados let out a deafening roar and as if the clouds were scared of him, the raining worsened even past what it had been earlier.

Flora cursed a bit more.

"Gyarados, try something physical!" Mark could never remember whether it was Reflect or Light Screen that countered special attacks, but at least it was either one or the other. And since Light Screen had countered that Dragon Beam…

Gyarados lunged forward with a roar. Indeed, the Light Screen wasn't solid and he got right through it, slamming into Meganium. However, this ended up as a kamikaze attack; Gyarados couldn't get back into the pool after this. He roared and thrashed madly around.

"Meganium, Razor Leaf!"

The dinosaur Pokémon let out a cry and fired a flurry of razor-sharp leaves from the petals around its neck. They all plummeted straight into Gyarados's body; none of them really did much to his armour, but one of the last leaves went straight into his eye.

Gyarados let out an ear-splitting roar of pain; blood spurted out from his eye and Mark looked away before recalling Gyarados into his Pokéball.

"All right, go Jolteon."

Mark was losing his hope of winning as the spiked Eevee evolution appeared; Jolteon's Electric attacks wouldn't be very effective especially with that Light Screen up, and Jolteon just weren't known to be particularly good users of physical attacks – although his Jolteon had actually used them fairly well. And Flora had two Pokémon left.

"Jolteon, try a Pin Missile!"

He crouched down and fired a flurry of small sharp hairs from his rear end towards the dinosaur. It passed through the Light Screen and Meganium cried out as it was bombarded by the attack.

"Razor Leaf!"

"Return!"

Jolteon was faster; he sped towards the dinosaur, charging a pink aura around him, and rammed into Meganium. The dinosaur seemed dizzy after the blow, but fired another bunch of leaves – much fewer than last time, though. Jolteon tried to avoid them and his wiry fur stopped some of the ones that came from the wrong angle, but he got stricken by some and got a few cuts. Meganium, however, had had enough and collapsed on the ground, fainted.

Mark wasn't surprised to hear Flora swear as her Pokéball absorbed the green dinosaur. "Well, it's time for my last against your last," she said. "Cacturne, I choose you!"

Out of her last Pokéball came what looked at first like a green scarecrow – it was probably the face with that evil mouth consisting of several holes lined up in a creepy grin along with creepy emotionless eyes. The weird head shape that resembled a hat didn't help. Then Mark noticed the spikes along its sides and realized it was more of a cactus. A very creepy cactus, that is. It had been sent out inside the protective Light Screen that Meganium had put up earlier.

"Jolteon, Pin Missile!" Mark shouted, and Jolteon fired more fur needles towards the cactus. It screeched eerily as it was hit, getting severely cut. Instead of blood, the Pokémon seemed to bleed water, which only made it seem creepier.

"Cacturne, use an Ingrain!"

Brown, twisted roots started growing out of Cacturne's feet and digging into the ground. Mark saw its wounds start to close. He would have to act fast.

"Jolteon, try another Pin Missile!"

"Cacturne, Sand-Attack!"

Another barrage of pins showered through the rain to cut Cacturne up while the cactus prepared for its own attack. It somehow whipped a bit of sand out of nowhere and then made it fly straight into Jolteon's eyes. He cried out, staggering backwards while trying to get the sand out of his eyes. Meanwhile he managed to continue firing the Pin Missile although his aim was suffering greatly. The spiky fur on his back was growing considerably thinner. Cacturne let out more screeches as Jolteon got the sand out of his eyes. The rain was still falling.

"Jolteon, try a Return!"

"Needle Arm!"

Jolteon leapt towards Cacturne and struck it, glowing with pink energy, but then the cactus swung one of its spiked arms and smashed it into Jolteon. He was thrown out of the Light Screen.

Jolteon stood weakly up, and Mark realized he was on the edge of fainting. Around Cacturne, the yellow bubble was fading into nothing.

Then it was as if a realization came over Jolteon.

"Jooolt!" he cried, sparkling with electricity as he manipulated the electric charge both in the clouds above and his opponent. A magnificent bolt of lightning struck right from the clouds into Cacturne's body with a roar of thunder, practically lighting the cactus on fire as it let out a piercing scream. Then it dropped to the ground, deep-fried and unconscious.

"Damn your Rain Dance!" Flora shouted, recalling her smoking Cacturne. "Fine, you'll get your badge!"

She threw a small object to him; it was a rather simple round silvery plate like the others, but this one was carved with a leaflike pattern on top. He put it in his pocket as he smiled at the exhausted Jolteon and recalled him.

"Nice match," he commented as they walked out through the doorway. Flora merely stormed back into the small building without answering.

Mark shrugged, felt the badge in his pocket and headed back towards Ash's house.


	28. Past, Present and Future

**Chapter 27: Past, Present and Future**

The three headed together towards Ruxido. This was the fourth time Mark had walked this path; by this time he was getting dead tired of it. Every bush seemed dull. What made it worse was that May and Alan were chatting excitedly while he just walked behind them, sulking and not wanting to participate for some reason he wasn't even sure about himself.

It slowly grew darker as they entered the forest, and while battling some wild Spinarak uneventfully on the way, Mark thought of not recalling his Pokémon after battle; their company was better than none, after all. He sent out his Pokémon one by one (aside from Gyarados, of course); Leta, Jolteon, Scyther and Sandslash walked alongside him while Dragonair practiced his flying skills high above in Charizard's company.

Mark wasn't sure what to say to Jolteon and Sandslash. He realized his Pokémon did not yet know of his hopeless mission, but he figured it would be best to tell all of them about that at once, so he didn't say anything at all. They seemed to feel there was something he wanted to tell them but was keeping to himself for the moment, and none of them said anything either as darkness fell upon the forest of Ruxido.

"It's biting cold," Mark finally called, shivering and wrapping his jacket around himself. "We should camp or something."

Alan turned. "Yeah, that might be a good idea," he replied, stopping and taking his backpack off his shoulder as he looked around. "Oh, look, there's even a little pond over there that we can send our Water Pokémon out into. We can actually all send out our Pokémon here; there's plenty of room. This place is great."

"I can light a fire," Charizard suggested helpfully as the kids and other Pokémon sat down on the damp grass one by one. Alan pulled some firewood out of his bag. As Charizard's fiery breath latched onto the wood and started slowly consuming it, Mark felt a stinging in his chest; he realized he'd have to tell them now.

He sighed. "Guys," he said, looking between the Pokémon at his sides, "we're no longer on a Pokémon journey."

They blinked and looked at each other. Mark had heard that Pokémon had no sense of time while in a Pokéball, so they wouldn't be able to tell how long they had been in there.

"Then… what?" Sandslash asked hesitatingly.

"We're on a quest to save the world."

The Pokémon blinked again.

"Save the world?" Sandslash repeated blankly.

"From what?"

"How?"

Mark sighed and started telling the whole story about Chaletwo and the War of the Legends again. It was starting to make him sick, so engraved in his memory in its finest details. With a painful twinge in his heart, he realized that even if he succeeded at his task, he would never be the same person again.

When he finished, there was a long silence. Everybody was at this point staring into the fire, him included, finding the warm, dancing flames comforting in some way when faced with the very hard-to-swallow truth once again.

"How are we ever supposed to find and catch them all?" Gyarados said darkly, finally breaking the silence. "Suicune evaded me for years, even when returning to the Lake every evening. And that's just one Legendary. This is an impossible task, Mark."

He sighed, feeling like he was sinking into a black hole. "I know. But the other ones have been caught…"

"Maybe there's a reason the ones that are left haven't been caught."

Mark didn't answer. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, it did seem very impossible. But he had to try… he was entrusted with this…

He looked at May and Alan. Alan had a grave look on his face, clearly nervous about the task ahead; even May, who had up until now acted like the end of the world was no more worrisome than a piece of particularly boring homework, was busily examining the details of her fingernails while biting her lip.

"Well," Mark finally said, "we'll all need to work together in this… we should get to know each other better… how about we all tell everybody something about ourselves? Nobody has to say anything, of course… but it would be nice…"

Sandslash shrugged and looked around. There were no objections; however, as Mark looked over the group, he noticed some of the Pokémon's reactions. Scyther stared bitterly into the fire; Mark saw he was trembling a bit. Gyarados moved his lips without making a sound. Jolteon's ears dropped. May's Lapras closed her eyes and looked away. Alan's Vaporeon, Mist, just sighed sadly.

"Should I start?" Mark asked carefully. Nobody objected to that either.

"Well, I live in Sailance, which is a town in North-West Ouen… you might have heard it called 'Poképhobe Heaven'. I've always been really interested in legendary Pokémon and wanted to be a trainer, but my parents wanted to protect me from Chaletwo so they didn't let me out. So, yeah." He shrugged, indicating that somebody else could speak.

"I was a Magikarp," Gyarados started. "Magikarp mothers lay thousands of eggs and from each surviving egg hatches one Magikarp. I was a bit darker in color than the rest, but nobody really saw that.

"I always used to hang out with the Carvanha rather than the other Magikarp. I thought my own kind was below me; the Carvanha laughed at me behind my back because they thought I was below them. When I found out, I proved myself by beating them up… I never realized the other Magikarp were so much weaker than I was until then. I found fighting fun, and I started going to the surface to tease trainers." Gyarados smiled grimly. "I wasted their Pokémon… the expression that always came on their faces was priceless.

"But naturally, when I battled too much I ended up evolving. That was when I turned into a predator. It wasn't really a problem at first… I could hide in the murky water, there were plenty of Pokémon and I had never really felt any compassion with my fellow Magikarp. I may have eaten my mother sometime, I have no idea. But at least I ate a bit too much for the lake. It was too closed off to suddenly have a huge predator affect the balance of life… the humans in Cleanwater City didn't like me because I caught all their fish and destroyed the lake's image as a tourist attraction and training spot, and they got all their best trainers to come and try to defeat me. I could just hide by the bottom and I beat the ones who dared to dive down to me.

"But then _Suicune_ came…" Gyarados spat the Legendary's name hatefully.

"Suicune cleaned the lake… made it so clear I was easily visible… the other Pokémon could see me and hide from the other end of the lake… the trainers could see me and have their Pokémon direct their attacks at me from the safety above… weak and hungry, one night I found a small underwater cave and managed to squeeze myself into it. I lurked there in hiding, grabbing the occasional Magikarp or Goldeen that swam past during the night, and tried to talk to Suicune… after all it was for the good of the rest of the life in the lake, so I could understand why he did it…

"But Suicune avoided and ignored me. He came back every night as to rub it in that I was at his mercy. I called, I waited, I tried everything to talk to him, but he never answered, always got around my attempts; he never told me why he had to torture me in this manner. He just didn't care…" Gyarados's voice trembled. "I hate him."

"Why would Suicune do that?" Mark asked blankly. "The War of the Legends?"

"I don't know," Gyarados said gloomily. "All I know is that Suicune tortured me for years." He looked at Mark. "That's why I ate that Sharpedo on the way to Aquarium City… I saw it as fresh prey and just couldn't resist…"

"It's all right," Mark muttered. "I'm sorry."

Gyarados sighed and started staring into the fire again, making it clear that he wasn't about to say more. Some of the other Pokémon shifted uncomfortably. The flames still reflected off Scyther's eyes as he sat there motionless apart from mouthing something to himself.

"I'm the son of Ash's Grovyle!" Racko said in an awkwardly happy voice, considering what Gyarados had been saying. "And I was born in Hooooooennn, the place of all places!" He bolted up and made a salesman-like gesture with his arms. "I love it," he then finished dramatically, sitting back down.

"Ignore him, he's always like that," Alan said, chuckling.

"Well," Sandslash finally said, "Sandshrew live in groups. We used to play having mock fights and competitions about who was the fastest digger. I remember when one of my friends evolved and I became so frightened that I ran away." He chuckled. "It was fun, but I don't think I'd go back if I could. It was kind of… irresponsible."

Mark nodded, looking around the group yet again. May's Butterfree finally spoke.

"Well, I don't really remember any of my life – our brains as Caterpie and Metapod aren't made to remember much. But Butterfree basically evolve, find a mate during the mating season, and then die. Males die right after they mate, and females die as they lay their eggs." She sighed. "Wild Butterfree barely ever live longer than a single year."

"That's… sad," Mark said. He couldn't imagine a life that short. "Why do you even mate, if it kills you?"

Butterfree shrugged. "Different view on death. We'll die anyway; why not ensure that our genes are passed on?"

Mark couldn't help being slightly disturbed, but said nothing.

"Well," said Mist heavily, "I had four siblings. We were left in the trash in a cardboard box somewhere in the city of Itsruban – it's here nearby."

"Cardboard box?" Mark asked blankly. "A human left you in the trash in a cardboard box?"

"Yeah," Mist said gloomily. "Without our mother. We were barely old enough to survive on our own."

"That's just… cruel," Mark said with disgust. Alan sighed; Mark noticed that May was sitting with her legs crossed, looking down at the ground while absent-mindedly snapping some grass blades in half.

"Well, at least I'm alive and well," Mist said, stroking friendly against her trainer's hand; he scratched her head fin with a smile. "I don't know about my siblings, though."

"Mother was a Flareon," Jolteon murmured. "We had a little nest somewhere nobody would find us… one day she went out to get some food… but she didn't come back." He was shaking as he talked. "I had two siblings, but they wanted to wait for her. I think they must have died. But I went out to look for her… and didn't find her… I was about to lie down on the road when I saw a human and a Charmander…"

"And I wanted to throw a Pokéball at you," Mark said quietly, staring down to the ground. He had been such an idiot. It seemed unbelievable how little time had passed since then.

"It's all right," Jolteon said softly. "What matters is that I'm here now."

"_She_ just threw a ball at me while I was crying," Lapras commented. May herself was messing with her fingernails and pretended not to hear anything. Lapras looked accusingly at her but didn't say anything else.

"My past wasn't interesting," Skarmory said to break the uncomfortable silence that followed. "I was brought up in a nest on a cliff near Alumine, and then I flew on my first flight and got caught."

Raichu shrugged. "Well, Mom used to live in Kanto. She told me she met Ash Ketchum's Pikachu once and he saved her out of a river."

"Oh, yeah, he told me about that," Alan said. "He meant to release him since he was having such a good time with those wild Pikachu…"

Mark was about to express his opinion on Ash's weird tendency to release most of his Pokémon, but figured it wouldn't be a good idea to start insulting Alan's father now. "Well, anybody else?" he finally asked. "Pupitar?"

The blue pupa continued staring expressionlessly at him.

"He won't say anything," May said, speaking for the first time as she stroked her hand over the grass, still too preoccupied to look up. "He's not very social."

"Oh," Mark said. None of the other Pokémon appeared to be about to speak; both he and Alan looked at May.

"What, me?" she asked when she finally looked up. "Well, I live in New Bark Town in Johto, where Professor Elm lives. My birthday is in February so that was when I went to the Professor to receive a trainer licence, but instead of getting a starter and starting my journey right away, I worked as Elm's assistant for two years, studying Pokémon anatomy, moves and battling. After that he gave me three starters to choose from, and I went to Ouen to get a Skarmory, but that thieving idiot Taylor stole my Cyndaquil so I decided to partake in the Ouen league instead and keep Johto for next year or something."

Mark nodded; he had heard the last part before, but she had clearly been discussing something else with Alan earlier since he didn't appear to know.

"Taylor? Stole your…?"

"I can tell you later," May just said with a careless wave of her hand as she resumed her previous activity of being a human lawnmower. Alan opened his mouth, but closed it again and shrugged.

There was a long silence after this. Everybody looked at everybody else.

"Scyther live in swarms," Scyther suddenly said, not taking his eyes off the dancing flames. "There is a leader pair and the others follow them. We like to spend our time duelling… nothing is as refreshing as a good duel. Rob let Kabutops and me duel, but it's not the same as with another Scyther. Kabutops was a good friend of mine, though…"

He suddenly seemed to realize he had wandered off the subject. "Well…" He sighed deeply.

"Like the Butterfree, we have a different view on death than humans, summarized by that saying I told you, 'Death is not to be feared, for it is the only thing that we all have in common.' It's the first rule of Scyther ethics. Do not fear dying, because we will all die one day. Fear of death only leads to doing dishonourable things to save one's own life."

"How did you end up with the Mew Hunter, anyway?" Mark asked curiously.

Scyther sighed again. "That's what I was about to say, actually… three years ago, I had my last duel in the wild. It was a female. I didn't particularly like her – well, of course I liked her, but I 'liked' everything female I came across, so she wasn't anything that stood out… We got into an argument, and she insulted me… a bit too harshly. So I challenged her to a duel. A serious one, not a friendly duel or mock duel. The unofficial rule is that a serious duel ends with a death, a friendly duel ends with a bleeding, and a mock duel ends with a wound.

"But well – I had nothing on her. She had the fastest reflexes I've ever seen and her cuts landed just where she meant them to. She was just… perfect. It would've been a shame if I had won by some chance and had to kill her, I realized… She had everything. I considered it an honour to let her kill me; I was ready for death that moment…" The mantis swallowed a few times.

"But… as you know… she didn't kill me," he finally finished in a quiet voice.

"Well, that was good," Mark commented.

"_Good?_" Scyther glared at Mark. "It was the most unfortunate thing that ever happened to me. It ruined my life. I was ready to die. I couldn't imagine a better time to die. But she didn't kill me… we both had to leave the swarm…"

"Why?"

Scyther sighed. "I told you, Mark… the first rule of Scyther ethics is not to fear death. Humans think of mercy as a noble thing, don't they? We do not. We're predators; we can't feel sorry for somebody we're about to kill. We believe that if you can't kill without remorse, it is because you fear your own death. In a Scyther's mindset, she did something very dishonourable by letting me live, especially with the unofficial rules of the serious duel. And I had lost; it is generally a bad thing to show weakness by losing a duel, but when the duel is of life and death, there is no way they will accept one who loses but still lives back into the swarm. The only right thing for a Scyther to do in my situation is suicide – which we believe to be a very natural thing after violating the rules of our society. But I didn't… because I had fallen in love with her. Or so I called it… a rush of lust, I should say…" He said the last sentence with a hint of self-hatred.

"I followed her. I hid, but kept an eye on her. I don't know what I was planning to do, but I didn't want to take my eyes off her. But once while she slept, a trainer found her… he caught her in her sleep… and I watched it without daring to help or even wake her up…"

Scyther bitterly screwed his eyes shut. "Cowardice. We hate it with a passion… but I let her be caught… I followed the trainer, but didn't attack, and of course he had a Metal Coat… he did an inter-Pokéball transfer and… _evolved_ her…" The word 'evolved' sounded more like a swear word than simply a term for Pokémon maturing in the way he said it.

"What do you have against Scizor, anyway?" Mark asked, having wondered about that for a while but never dared to ask.

"Everything," Scyther said darkly. "Scyther's evolution is an unnatural process. It can't happen unless the Scyther is exposed to metal and his energy converted such as when being traded. Of course we met this with prejudice when it was discovered, especially since we already consider simply being caught at all to be a sign of extreme weakness. And the two things that are our pride and joy are our speed and our scythes – when we evolve, we lose both for a metal armor and pincers. To us the trade-off is far from worth it, but to a human it usually is. Do you realize just how high a percentage of trainers would evolve a Scyther if they obtained one? Thanks to Scizor's existence, Scyther are sought after among trainers – which we do not care for – but nonetheless not appreciated in their present form and have to be mutated into scytheless freaks to be even respected. We're brought up to loathe Scizor and everything about them. The word 'evolution' alone makes us twitch."

An array of questions popped up in Mark's mind, all getting in each other's way and making his head spin. In the end he asked the simplest question:

"Well, what happened then?"

Scyther sighed. "In a moment of madness I went crazy… I broke into the Pokémon Center through the window and started slashing everything… no," he added as he saw the look on Mark's face, "I didn't kill anybody. The trainer himself wasn't even scratched – some kid got a nosebleed and that was it, I think. Then some guy took out a shotgun, I came to my senses and figured I'd better get out of there, and I went back out through the window. I cut myself a bit on the glass and a bullet hit me in the back, and I blacked out just a little outside of the Pokémon Center.

"Then Rob found me. I couldn't move… I prayed he wouldn't notice me or at least become scared and run away, but he didn't. He looked at me for a second, fiddled with the one empty Pokéball he had, and then after a pause threw it at me and caught me – I couldn't fight the ball. I thought I was doomed to the same fate as her. But he didn't evolve me. I found out that he liked my scythes the way they were. I had never known there actually were humans like that, but I still went through a long period of depression. How often didn't I raise my scythe to my throat but not have the courage to take my own life… Kabutops tried to tell me that Rob wasn't really that bad, but I didn't listen. I was still convinced that there was no such thing as a good human."

"Did you like him?"

Scyther chuckled.

"Like him? He's the best damn person I've ever met," Scyther said with an emphasizing but scary swing of his scythe. "He was a great man in every way. Trainers like to say with pride that they treat their Pokémon as equals; when you've seen Rob, you can't help but laugh at that. He didn't treat us as equals; it was like he didn't even know the difference. He treated us exactly like he would treat a human friend in every possible way. It was incredible, the way he could reach his Pokémon – even Fangcat, who usually wanted to be alone and never really felt as much as one of us as the others, could spend hours on end just sitting with him and growling about her life. And he didn't put any pressure on me when I came in. He didn't make me battle; he didn't even keep me in the Pokéball. He just let me stay in the Gym and take out my anger on whatever was available while he went out with his Pokémon in the evening. He caught me in a few suicide attempts… every time, he asked me why, but I never answered. When I started calming a bit down, he let me come with him and his Pokémon one evening. I found out that the place they always went to was a bar. He actually bought drinks for all of his Pokémon. He offered me some, but I thought it smelled funny and didn't accept it. He just shrugged and let me stay there. After drinking a bit, the Pokémon started talking about their former lives, and I found out that they had all been miserable. And Rob just nodded and drank with them, and shared some of his own experiences in return.

"At the time I just found him weird. The way he just kept going on got on my nerves, and he seemed depressing. But one day he caught me trying to kill myself yet again… he took me to a back room of the Gym, gave me a drink again and said it would do me good. I drank some and after finishing enough and talking to him for a bit, I just – broke down. And I told him everything that had happened, everything I had been thinking and feeling… and he just looked at me and nodded, not trying to fix my problems, but just feeling sorry for me… I realized that was what I really needed, I let it all out, and then he got some more drinks and started telling me the full story of himself… I realized that we weren't that much different. We both had a passion for something that was lost, we had both attempted suicide but not had the guts, and we had both been rejected by the rest of our species, seeking company and purpose with others.

"Well, I ended up falling asleep, but when I woke up, I had changed. I think Rob just has this effect on you – after being around him for a while, you become just like him. Soon I was rambling about my feelings and drowning my sorrows in alcohol just like Rob and his other Pokémon.

"Then one day, he frantically told us all that he had found Mew again. While his excitement grew, I was filled with dread. He was a completely different person when Mew was around. He figured that he'd be best off getting you to tell him where this 'you-know-where' was, and cooked up a plan which he got me to participate in. I tried to make him change his mind, but he didn't listen. He told me again and again that he had to get Mew… I slowly realized that he had changed. Nonetheless I kept trying until the last moment.

"But when I flew out that window, I just started thinking… what next? I would not be accepted back into the Scyther swarm, and I realized that I had no purpose in life anymore… the only thing that had kept me alive was my trainer, the purpose of battling for him and doing my best. And I thought of you, remembered that you hadn't seemed too bad, and in desperation I came back to you and let you catch me."

"And we know the rest," Mark finished.

"No, you don't," Scyther said, turning to him. "I managed to focus on you, my trainer, but one day you entered me in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, and I battled a Scizor…"

The mantis looked back into the fire and sighed deeply. "I was prepared to kill her… just to get my revenge on the species of Scizor for existing… but then I looked into her eyes, and then I recognized her. I had always assumed she had to have killed herself or at least that she was not battling like… like _that_…"

"That was why you didn't kill her?" Mark asked in realization. "Not because of the trainer?"

"The trainer?" Scyther snorted. "I'd like nothing more than see him burn in agony for the rest of his pathetic little life. But I… couldn't kill her. I just couldn't."

"But why didn't you say anything to her?" Mark asked, puzzled.

"I did," Scyther replied. "Just before we were recalled, I said, 'Look who's evolved now.'"

"And nothing more?" Mark asked incredulously. "Even when you were in love with her and all that?"

"She's a Scizor," Scyther spat. "And she ruined my life – I hate her for not killing me that day."

The mantis Pokémon stared at the flames once again. "And it wasn't love," he added quietly.

There was a very long silence after this. Everybody looked at Scyther, but he didn't appear to notice; his eyes were fixed at the campfire and his face showed no expression.

"Um," Alan said hesitatingly, "perhaps we should go to sleep. We have a lot of walking to do tomorrow."

"Right," Mark said. "Um, so…" He took out his Pokéballs.

"Wait a second, Mark," Sandslash said. "Remember what I suggested to you on the twenty-fifth?"

Mark racked his brain and found it quickly.

"Oh, right, about letting you have some time outside your Pokéballs?"

Sandslash nodded. "I think we would all like to get some time to stretch – we can just make sure to be back by morning."

Mark smiled. "Of course you can. Just be careful in case there are powerful wild Pokémon here somewhere."

All of Mark's Pokémon seemed to be happy to hear those news; Leta looked a little nervous, but Jolteon, who was beside her, nudged her with his head and assured her that he'd be watching her.

"Can we stay out of our balls too?" Lapras asked, turning her head to May. She made some kind of a shrug with a faint mutter of, 'Yeah, I guess.' Alan let his Pokémon go too as the kids prepared their sleeping bags. Mark watched the Pokémon head deeper into the woods one by one. After he had gotten into his sleeping bag, he saw Scyther slowly stand up and fly off between the trees. The buzzing of his wings quieted soon and only the hoots of the Noctowl were to be heard anymore.

Pupitar, who was of course immobile, just lay beside May's sleeping bag, his eyes closed. Mark noticed her arm wrap around the cocoon in her sleep.


	29. Scyther's Revenge

**Author's Note:** Some details of Hitmonchan anatomy mentioned in this chapter belong to Iveechan.

* * *

**Chapter 28: Scyther's Revenge**

Mark woke up to the smell of fried eggs. He opened his eyes, taking a second to remember where he was, and then sat up.

Alan and May were already up, and indeed, Alan was frying eggs on a pan on the remains of yesterday's fire. May was repacking her sleeping bag. The Pokémon were back, some sleeping and some just standing around, perhaps engaging in conversations with one another. May's Pupitar was now standing straight up, his eyes open, dark and staring. Mark shuddered; that creature was creeping him out more with every passing day.

"Good morning, Mark," Alan said, handing him a plate with an egg. "Hey… do you know where Scyther went?"

Mark quickly looked over the group of Pokémon again, first now noticing that Scyther wasn't there. He froze.

"No…" he said worriedly, his heart beating hard. He wasn't sure why he felt so suspicious – after all, he had probably just forgotten about time or something – but something gave him a bad feeling about this. He told himself to calm down and at least wait a bit, and stabbed his fork into his egg.

"Who's that?" May asked, pointing at a human-shaped shadow walking on the path they had come from. Mark squinted at it; it was too small to be an adult at the very least. He took a bite of his food, watching it with interest. As the shadow neared, he suddenly realized what it was.

A Hitmonchan.

What made him realize it was the shape of the head; the top of the forehead took a shape distantly reminiscent of a crown. However, the nearer it came, the less human it looked; it had a flat face without a nose, for example, and was not wearing any clothes (not even the standard Hitmonchan boxing gloves and tunic, which Mark found slightly odd). Some details of Hitmonchan anatomy which were rarely seen by others than the people who trained them, such as the muscular chest being creamy yellow rather than the brown that the rest of the skin and that the natural fists had red, blue and yellow jewels embedded in the knuckles, were plainly visible. Puzzling as it was, considering his lack of clothing, he was carrying a backpack.

"Good morning," the Hitmonchan said politely, having stopped at reasonable talking distance from them. He looked between the kids and Pokémon, awaiting a reply.

"You're…" Charizard started slowly, "you're Fury from the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament."

Fury grinned. "I'm glad you remember me."

Mark looked to the sides, confused. "Where is your trainer?"

"I am my own trainer," Fury replied with a slight nod of his head. Mark stared at him.

"Huh? You mean you're wild?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Fury simply said. "I am the fully qualified trainer of myself."

He smiled as he looked at everybody's expressions, seemingly enjoying himself as a mystery. "I have a licence," he then added for clarification.

"But Pokémon can't get trainer licences!" said May, the first person to voice what everybody was thinking.

Fury smiled again. "I'm the first, but I hope many will follow in my footsteps."

"But…" Mark stuttered, "why?"

"Well," Fury replied, "it just so happens that I am interested in the Pokémon league, but not so interested in having a trainer. I spoke with the authorities and presented my idea, and finally convinced them that this would be an important step towards Pokémon equality. My journey is an experiment, and I hope it will go well and that they will get the league to make an exception of the six-Pokémon rule in the case of Pokémon on their own."

"How does this work, though?" May asked, clearly interested. "Can you catch Pokémon?"

"Technically," Fury replied. "I currently have a normal human trainer licence. But I don't want to catch other Pokémon. I am myself and have no interest in battling unless I do the fighting."

"What about when you faint?" Mark asked.

"I know myself better than letting that happen," he said with a slight smile. "Besides, I've got a Focus Band just for safety." He pointed to a red and yellow band he was wearing on his head. "A Focus Band is something that will allow you to survive anything without falling completely unconscious. It's not very likely to leave you in a state to battle, but it will at least give me a chance to forfeit and heal myself."

May nodded thoughtfully. "You battle trainers, then, in one-on-one?"

"Yes," Fury confirmed. "In fact, I thought perhaps one of you would like a battle?" He got a slightly mischievous smile. "I've found much satisfaction in trying out trainers to see how they will fare against Pokémon and trainer who are one and the same."

He looked between them; Alan shook his head but May looked interested.

"I'd like to try," Mark said, shrugging, mainly looking for a way to kill time while he waited for Scyther.

"Can you battle both of us?" May asked. "I'd like a try too."

"Well," Fury replied with a smile, "that depends on whether I feel I can battle after the first one."

"Oh, all right," May said thoughtfully. "Mark, you can try first."

"I request, by the way," Fury added, "that because I am incapable of choosing my own weaknesses, you should pick a Pokémon that does not have a physical advantage over Fighting Pokémon."

Mark nodded. "Sandslash?"

The pangolin Pokémon nodded back and came to Mark's side. There was a reason he chose Sandslash: remembering Charmeleon coughing up blood at the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, he wanted to use a Pokémon with considerable defensive abilities. He looked nervously at his Pokémon; Sandslash seemed fearless, which made him a bit more confident.

Meanwhile, Fury had taken off his backpack and opened it to reveal that that was where he kept his gloves and tunic. "I hope you don't mind me battling tunic-less?" he questioned, pulling on his gloves. "They only require it for official battles because some people don't like to look at naked humanoids…" He chuckled slightly and looked at the kids; they just shook their heads.

"The gloves are necessary, though," he explained with slight resent as he adjusted them and examined them from all angles. "Without them slightly absorbing the force of the punch and spreading it around a larger area, Hitmonchan can smash skulls. Well, are we starting now?"

Whether Fury realized it or not (at least he had just started stretching as he said the last sentence), the news about Hitmonchan smashing skulls was not the most comfortable Mark had ever received. He glanced at Fury's thin and weak-looking arms, finding it very creepy that they could contain that kind of muscular power. Nonetheless, he reassured himself with the fact that at least Fury _did_ have his gloves, and replied, "Yeah, sure."

Fury nodded, smiling, and got into a defensive fighting stance, his keen eyes watching Sandslash closely.

"Earthquake!" Mark shouted, sensing that Fury was waiting for him to start. Sandslash rose to his hind legs and smashed himself powerfully back into the ground, releasing a flurry of shock waves through the ground. However, the moment before being hit, Fury suddenly leapt up. He then turned in mid-air, kicking into a tree to jump sideways at the pangolin with his fist pulled back. This was all too fast for Mark to work it out and blurt out a command in time, but thankfully Sandslash had faster reflexes and curled into a tight ball of spikes. Icy blue energy seemed to circle Fury's glove for a fraction of a second before he smashed it into Mark's Pokémon with enough force to send him flying right at Mark – he narrowly managed to duck – and into a tree while the Hitmonchan landed. When Sandslash uncurled and shook himself slightly before returning to his normal position, he thankfully didn't look that hurt; Mark owed it to the timely Defense Curl.

"Sandslash…"

Mark didn't have the time to issue an order; while Sandslash was waiting for him to finish the instructions, Fury caught him off guard with another Ice Punch in the gut. Sandslash flailed a bit as his vulnerable underbelly was covered with frost; the Hitmonchan grabbed the opportunity to punch him again in the jaw. Sandslash staggered painfully backwards and finally lost his balance and fell helplessly onto his back, blood trickling from his mouth.

Mark painfully recalled his Pokémon, feeling a bit embarrassed by how quickly and easily Fury had won the battle. He looked around and suddenly remembered his previous worries.

"Er," he said, "I think I'm going to go look for Scyther now. I'm getting a bit anxious."

May, who was getting ready for her battle, nodded; Alan just shrugged casually while his expression had a small hint of worry. Fury walked up to him and held out his hand, having taken that glove off.

"Goodbye, then."

"Yeah, bye," Mark replied. "Thanks for the battle and all…"

"You're too slow," Fury suddenly said.

"Huh?" Mark asked, a bit surprised by the abrupt announcement.

"You're too slow," Fury repeated. "It's what made you lose. Your Pokémon battle better without you than with; they have to wait for you to tell them an order or act on their own accord. You're too slow making the orders."

The words stung. In essence, Mark knew that; ever since he started his journey, he had felt slightly embarrassed by how long it usually took him to think of an attack. However, having that broken down to him by somebody else was another thing entirely, and it was a bit painful.

"You have potential," Fury started again, looking into Mark's eyes. "While you aren't born with the reflexes and thought speed for a master trainer, your Pokémon stick with you. I don't know you enough to be able to tell why that is, but something is there – perhaps you know. Don't try to battle with a talent you don't have. Change your strategy to bring your true abilities to use."

Mark stared at him, feeling oddly numb. "Thanks," he muttered. "I will."

Fury turned, giving him a perhaps slightly too powerful pat on the back. "Good luck," he said and walked back over to face May. Mark waved doubtfully and headed into the forest alone.

Scyther wasn't too far away. Mark was surprised by how quickly he caught a glimpse of the glossy yellow wings between some trees.

He stepped off the road and almost immediately got his leg tangled in the undergrowth. While attempting to get himself free, he shouted, "Scyther!"

The mantis turned around suspiciously quickly and hid his scythes behind his back. As Mark untangled himself, he walked slowly nearer, feeling a bit uneasy.

"What are you hiding?" he asked doubtfully, looking at his Pokémon. That kind of pose was laughably awkward for a Scyther. As he heard no answer, he suspiciously came even closer and tried to walk around the mantis; Scyther turned along with him so his blades were kept out of view. By turning left suddenly enough, Mark managed to catch a glimpse of something red.

He immediately froze, feeling suddenly cold as the color drained from his face. His heartbeats doubled in speed within seconds as he looked frantically around. In between the branches of the bush right behind Scyther, he saw something white.

A shoe.

The world seemed to stop as Mark's vision faded to reddish black; his brain protested with dizziness like the world around him was being sucked into a black hole, and he felt like he was about to faint. This horrible state lasted for an eternity of a second.

"Scyther, you… you killed someone," Mark said weakly when the world had more or less returned to normal, backing away slightly. In sudden nausea, he bent over and threw up his half-digested breakfast.

"No," Scyther said in his usual, calm voice.

Mark raised himself up with an expression of horror and disgust, his legs trembling like jelly in an earthquake. "Don't lie to me," he said shakily. "There's a body… You've got… you've got blood on your…"

"He's not dead," Scyther said coolly.

"_What do you mean, he's not dead?_" Mark screamed, explosive anger taking over his mind. How dare he be so calm, how dare he use that voice…

"He's not dead yet… I'm letting him bleed to death… Mark, listen to me…"

"Why would I listen to you?" Mark shouted back. "Why are you killing him? Who is that, anyway?"

"It's Scizor's trainer," Scyther spat with uttermost loathing. Suddenly, a wave of understanding washed over Mark. He felt a little bit calmer; squeezing his eyes shut, he replied, "Even though it's Scizor's trainer, it's no excuse to kill him… We need to get an ambulance now… I think May has a cellphone… we need to go and borrow…"

"Do we have to?" Scyther interrupted. These four words shattered everything that was left of Mark's former view of Scyther to pieces.

"Yes, we have to," Mark said, trying to keep calm.

Scyther sighed deeply. "You don't understand, do you? I just saw him as I was returning to you, and I – I had to…"

"You didn't 'have to'!" Mark snapped. "You're an idiot! Do you even realize what you've done? This is an attempted murder by a trained Pokémon! It breaks the Agreement! It's…"

"I never meant to get you into trouble," Scyther sighed. "I didn't think that far."

"You're the one who needs to understand, you know," Mark said heatedly. "You don't kill people, no matter how much you hate them. That's not how it works with humans. Now come into your ball so I can go get May's cellphone; we're wasting way too much time here and the guy is dying." Mark cringed and swallowed as he glanced nervously at the shoe.

"That won't work," Scyther said slowly, first now bringing his blood-stained scythes into view. "You will have to lie about what really happened, and your story will be very hard to believe while you're carrying a Pokémon with the victim's blood on his scythes."

Mark paused. "Hurry and wash up, then… I'll wait here." He immediately had doubts about his suggestion, fearing that somebody might come across the body with him standing there like an idiot beside it, so he added, "Well, maybe I should come with you."

Again, he had doubts after making that suggestion. The obvious place to go would be the pond they had spent the night by, but did he really want May and Alan to know the truth either? And what if Fury was still there? They'd have to look for another spring or something, and meanwhile the trainer was bleeding…

"I know the best thing to do," Scyther said, interrupting Mark's thoughts. He looked sceptically at the mantis.

"I wash my scythes, and then I come back and wait here. You go to where May is and make that call. Tell them he was attacked by some wild Sneasel – they sometimes attack in the morning even though they're mostly around at night, and they sometimes let their victims die slowly. Wait there until they come, take them here and tell them you left me with him to make sure the Sneasel wouldn't finish him off."

Mark almost laughed. "And leave you here conveniently alone with somebody you've just been attempting to murder? Nice try, Scyther."

The mantis took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I am not selfish enough to kill him when it is so important to you that I don't," he said quietly, clearly pained by what he was saying. "Now go, if you are so bent on letting him live."

Mark stared at Scyther for a few seconds, racking his brain for any other possible solution but to his horror not finding one.

"Would you really keep that promise?" he asked softly.

"I don't make promises," Scyther simply said.

Mark stared at him with helpless terror, his mind blank. After all, had Scyther ever given him a real reason not to trust his words?

In some moment of foolishness, Mark turned around and sped back onto the road.


	30. Stormblade and Shadowdart

**Chapter 29: Stormblade and Shadowdart**

Mark couldn't get over just how stupid he had been. Obviously Scyther would kill the trainer. Why was he even taking the doctors there? He really didn't know. Maybe he should be telling them he couldn't remember where it was or something. Yeah, he really should.

But his legs walked on and his mouth stayed closed, even while the worry built up in his mind.

The past fifteen minutes or so had been a nightmare. First May had found it suspicious that some Sneasel would have not only been around but also not even been in a hurry to kill their prey at that time, and had wanted to ask endless questions while Mark gradually turned into a nervous wreck. When he finally got her to stop stalling and lend him her cellphone, he had first dialled the wrong number, and then the lady who answered the phone call had not understood him because he spoke too fast. Thankfully, only seconds passed from when he managed to make himself understandable and until two doctors in white coats teleported there with an Abra, and he was now leading the way into the forest with the whole group to show them the victim.

"There?" Alan asked, pointing. Mark jumped, looking distractedly over in that direction; he could see Scyther there, seemingly fighting something. Mark's first crazy thought was that the trainer had regained consciousness and they were having some sort of a hand-to-hand fight about his life; however, he quickly realized the logical failure in that assumption, nodded and hurried ahead to see what was going on.

What he saw when he entered the clearing was what he had least expected. The trainer, who had been moved more into the open, was still there, and meanwhile Scyther was fiercely fending off two black, catlike creatures with bladelike claws.

The Sneasel ran for it and disappeared into the forest as they realized they had been outnumbered. Scyther turned to the group of humans, his eyes expressionless; the doctors hurried to the trainer with their yellow Psychic Pokémon and started to check him for life signs.

"He's alive," one of the doctors confirmed after checking the pulse. "It was lucky you came around and had the sense to leave your Pokémon here to guard him…"

Mark nodded.

"You may be contacted later for a report. Abra, Teleport!"

The yellow Pokémon yawned and stretched out its clawed limbs as the doctors each placed a hand on the brown armour on its shoulders, also holding the trainer's hands. Then all four of them disappeared.

"Well," May said after a few moments of silence, "nothing more to see here. Stormy Town is that way."

And she strode back towards the road, Alan quickly following behind her.

"Why did you move him?" Mark asked Scyther quietly as they walked after the others.

"I realized it wouldn't look very convincing that some Sneasel would drag him into a bush after bringing him down but before killing him," Scyther replied simply. Mark shuddered yet again at how calmly and casually the mantis talked about the incident.

"Why were those Sneasel there, anyway?"

"Attracted by the smell of blood."

Mark wondered for a split second if it was a good idea to ask, but went ahead: "May said Sneasel are never around this late in the morning."

Scyther smiled faintly. "The ones in Ruxido hunt later than most other Sneasel because many of the Pokémon they eat here first turn up in the morning. I know; I lived here when I was wild."

Mark looked at him, surprised. "You did?"

Scyther nodded, looking fondly around at the trees. "I wonder…" he started like he was thinking aloud, but never finished the sentence. They walked on in silence for a little while.

All of a sudden, Scyther started to laugh. It immediately took the prize of the creepiest sound Mark had ever heard; perhaps it was ancient instinct that made it so chilling, but it sent a cold shiver down his spine.

"That was the last one," Scyther said and chuckled some more, in a kind of ironic fashion rather than the laugh of one who is amused.

"The last… what?"

Scyther turned to Mark with some sort of a crazy smile. "Remember 'Death is not to be feared'? The first rule of Scyther ethics?"

Mark nodded.

"There are five," Scyther said quietly. "And I've broken them all now."

"What?" Mark asked, confused.

"Ever since that duel… Ever since she beat me, I've been breaking them one after another… The one I had yet to break before now was not to inflict unnecessary pain… but now I have."

He giggled insanely with an odd expression for a second; then he suddenly stopped and jerked his scythe up to his throat. The blade trembled for a few seconds as the mantis Pokémon gritted his teeth. "I'm pathetic, pathetic, pathetic…"

Finally, Scyther lowered his scythe and sighed. He looked at it for a second. "Only rule I've followed to this day is keeping them sharp."

"That's a rule too?" Mark asked, still a bit wary in case Scyther decided to attempt to cut his head off again. The mantis nodded.

"Yes. It's included in the one about no unnecessary pain, actually… a blunt blade hurts more than a sharp one…"

Mark didn't reply as he figured Scyther might not want to dwell on the subject, but the Pokémon continued on his own accord:

"I sharpen them every day… I'm proud of them… I sharpen them until they don't hurt anymore…"

"Until they…?"

Scyther held his arm out in front of Mark; he was about to ask what that was for when he noticed a row of small cuts on the soft yellow upper arm.

"You… you test them on yourself?" Mark asked with a hint of disgust. Scyther shrugged.

"Nobody else to test them on."

Suddenly, Scyther froze and looked quickly around.

"Scyther? What…" Mark was cut off by the buzzing of wings; he stepped slowly backwards as two green blurs approached and landed on the ground in front of Scyther, revealing themselves to be two other members of his species.

"Well, Razor, we never expected to see you again," one of them said in a hoarse, deep voice. He was missing an eye, and the green armour on his body was strangely light, giving him an overall sort of faded, 'withering away' look. The other Scyther had a large chunk missing out of its left scythe, but was a very dark green compared to the others.

"Stormblade." Scyther looked at the lighter one with a small nod and turned to the dark one. "Shadowdart…"

Mark looked confusedly at him; Shadowdart looked suspiciously at Mark.

"What is the human doing here?" He narrowed his eyes and looked sharply back at Mark's Scyther, who hesitated. He seemed upset and alert.

"He's… my friend."

Shadowdart gave Mark a nasty glare before jerking his head back towards Scyther. "Your 'friend'? Since when did you make human friends?"

"None of your business," Scyther replied quietly.

Stormblade appeared not to like this subject, and changed it. "Well, did you ever find Nightmare?" he asked.

Scyther nodded. Shadowdart didn't object to the abrupt change of direction in the conversation, but looked at Mark every now and then.

"So how did it go?" Stormblade asked with interest.

Scyther swallowed, looking at the two other bugs, and then whispered, "She… She got caught…"

Shadowdart looked at Scyther with angry disbelief. "Caught?"

"How did that happen?" Stormblade asked slowly. "She was the fastest I've ever seen…"

"He caught her in her sleep," Scyther said bitterly. Stormblade nodded absent-mindedly before suddenly looking sharply back at him.

"How would you know? Were you there?"

Scyther sighed and nodded, looking down. Stormblade's expression changed to one of disdain.

"Then you didn't do anything… You just watched…"

Scyther was very visibly uncomfortable, but simply sighed again, nodding.

"I thought I knew you," Stormblade muttered, shaking his head. "I never thought you'd…"

"Screw that," Shadowdart interrupted, looking at Mark once again. "What are you doing with the human?"

"He's my trainer," Scyther said after a short silence. Shadowdart snorted.

"You let a human stuff you into a ball? I thought you had some dignity… Then it's probably true what they all say, that you begged for your life, too…"

"Don't," Stormblade warned. "You didn't watch the duel. I did."

"Fine," Shadowdart spat, "then she was just weak. I bet both of you just sit there with your trainers now doing whatever you're told, like little robots under their…"

"NO!"

Scyther swung his scythe straight at Shadowdart's face. For a second Mark thought he'd kill him, but Shadowdart quickly raised his own blade to block the blow. Scyther attacked faster and more fiercely than Mark had ever seen him, gritting his teeth as Shadowdart's scythes clashed with his again and again. Finally slashing forward with both of his blades, Scyther stared murderously into the other's eyes as Shadowdart blocked.

The two Scyther glared at each other while each pushed with all his might; finally they both leapt backwards and Shadowdart lowered his scythes.

"All right," he said nastily. "Fine. Be a slave. You're not worth duelling."

Shadowdart looked at Mark again. "And your so-called trainer isn't worth killing, either."

With that, he took off and buzzed back into the depths of the forest. Stormblade looked doubtfully at Scyther, shaking his head before flying after the other bug.

"What was that?" Mark asked when they were out of sight.

"My friends," Scyther sighed. "Only proves how worthless I've become…"

They walked on, not in a hurry to catch up with May and Alan. Mark hesitated a bit. "They called you Razor – is that your name?"

Scyther shook his head. "Pokémon don't have names like humans, remember… We made those silly names up ourselves to use for each other. I'd prefer if you didn't call me that – too many memories I'd rather not think of." He paused for a second. "I do like calling her Nightmare, though," he added softly. "Ironically fitting… but I can't stand the thought of you calling her 'Scizor'."

Mark nodded. They silently kept going; Mark could see the sunlight between the trees ahead, and realized the forest's exit was not far ahead.

"It's funny, actually," Scyther suddenly started. "Stormblade hasn't changed one bit, but Shadowdart was always a wuss. He got scared easily… The day of his First Prey, he couldn't face ending a life and it took him many, many failed attempts before he finally caught something he had the guts to kill. That was actually the same day as my fateful duel with Nightmare…" He trailed off.

"First prey?" Mark asked.

"A kind of growing-up ritual," Scyther explained shortly. "You go out on your first hunt and need to catch and kill something all by yourself, and once you've done that you're officially an adult."

He seemed to be thinking hard for a second. "I just don't get it," he muttered. "You saw that piece that was cut out of his scythe?"

Mark nodded.

"It was always our leader's trademark to cut a bit from those he defeated… This means Shadowdart has challenged him for leadership, but not just once – with that much cut out, it must be three, four, five times. He wants to be leader…"

Scyther paused. "Damn it, where did all that determination come from?" he suddenly asked loudly with a hint of annoyance simply about the mystery itself. "Not Stormblade. He's turned into Shadowdart's toy…"

He sighed and shook his head. "I've changed too… but for the better… This is… I really have a bad feeling about this…"

They exited Ruxido into the glorious sunlight of Route 212, only to be greeted by an endless field of tall grass. May and Alan stood hopelessly in front of it.

"We might be able to get around it," Mark heard May saying as they approached.

"Yeah, but it would take ages," Alan argued. "It can't be _that_ bad to walk through…"

"Oh, hi," May said as she turned around and saw them. "As you can see, this is a very annoying patch of grass."

Mark stared out at it. "I can imagine."

Scyther looked at the grass and just smiled before taking a step backwards and then zooming into it with his scythes aloft. Grass blades flew in all directions. Within a few minutes, he had cut down a clear path through all the grass and returned.

"Nice," Alan said, raising his eyebrows and heading into the newly-cut path. May followed after him, and Mark came last.

"I haven't done that in years…" Scyther recalled. "Fun, though, and harder than it looks. As soon as our scythes harden – they're soft when we're born – we start doing this for practice, all the way until our First Prey."

"What is the First Prey thing like exactly?" Mark asked. He had always found this kind of thing interesting; wild Pokémon's culture were something he wished there was more of at school.

Scyther shrugged. "They send you off, and two witnesses follow you to make sure you do it all by yourself. Then you just find something living, kill it, and bring it back to the swarm, eating it there and giving some to those you respect, which always includes the leader unless you plan to be banished. Usually we just catch small Pokémon like Rattata or Nidoran. The more ambitious head for bigger targets and greater glory."

Mark nodded. "What did you catch?" he asked out of curiosity, wondering what kind of a target Scyther had headed for when he was younger.

"Well…" The mantis looked around, reluctant to answer. Mark looked at him with suspicion.

"You don't want to know," Scyther finally said quietly. Not sure if the hint was intentional, Mark felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

"Don't tell me you…"

Scyther nodded without looking at Mark. He immediately felt sick.

"Why a human?" he mumbled.

"Why not?" Scyther whispered. "Do you think the Nidoran wouldn't be horrified if I had caught one of them? And the Rattata upset if I had killed their offspring? We are all sentient, Mark… and none of us want to be killed deep down, no matter how many rules of your ethics tell you to be ready to face it."

Mark said nothing. It still felt wrong, but in a way Scyther had a point. He shivered as he thought of all the Pokémon families that the mantis might have ruined, the children he might have left motherless, the eggs that cooled and died with nothing to warm them… all because he was a predator…

Scyther suddenly started to laugh again. "Isn't this ironic? I could kill you… I could reach out with my arm and cut your head off if I wanted… but here we are talking like best mates…"

Mark didn't particularly like this twist of the conversation, but Scyther didn't notice, he was looking straight forward and muttering to himself.

"You know about the animal world?" he suddenly asked, looking back at Mark.

"Yeah?"

"The humans there were too powerful for their own good. They practically took over the world, and it… went to their heads. Because they had no natural enemies, they made other humans into enemies instead – those who were different in some way, lived in different places, looked different or had different customs. Of course, it all ended with their society going to Hell. They went to wars, blew each other up and made the animal world into the radioactive wasteland it is now. Thankfully the portal between the worlds had been opened and refugees fled into the Pokémon world…"

Scyther stared ahead at the plains below as they started to walk downhill. Wild Pokémon were becoming less prominent in the area; it was clear that they were entering the Pokémon-devoid part of Ouen from the East. Mark had forgotten that Stormy Town was so close to Sailance; he looked with regret back towards Ruxido, so lively compared to the dull sand ahead.

"Of course, the animal world brought animals here," Scyther added, snapping Mark away from the sight of Ruxido. "Pokémon are really made to eat each other… Animal meat such as humans doesn't contain nearly the energy and nutrition that Pokémon need, and when Pokémon started teaming up with humans and fighting the predators, it simply wasn't worth the bother to hunt them anymore. Since humans don't even eat Pokémon anymore, having the farm animals, it was possible for this kind of inter-species co-operation to emerge. In the Pokémon world, both humans and Pokémon evolved differently from how the humans did in the animal world. The presence of a technical threat – some sort of a Pokémon revolution – brings more unity among the humans, and trained Pokémon are the glue that ties both species together, because they are loyal to some portion of both sides… It works out, so strangely perfectly."

Scyther nodded absent-mindedly to himself and then turned back to the uncomfortable subject of earlier: "Are you really never afraid of me, even though I've both threatened you and almost killed you?"

"Not… not really," Mark muttered. "Well, when it happens I am, of course, but…"

The mantis chuckled. "It's a good thing. A perfect example of the kind of ridiculous trust between humans and Pokémon who have been together for a little while… The species could as well fuse into one by now. If this development continues, all trainers will be like Rob in ten years… Pokémon will be viewed exactly like human friends… Perhaps Pokémon training will even be stopped; it's not even needed anymore to connect us… We are as one…"

Mark listened, but said nothing; Scyther didn't appear to mind, and in fact it looked like he had mostly been wondering aloud without expecting an answer. They were all distracted from this conversation as the sight of Stormy Town came into view; scattered buildings that looked depressingly deserted formed an irregular area around a large neon pink, blue and yellow brick-shaped building in the middle. Black thunderclouds loomed over the town and the mountains to its North-West, producing an occasional flash of lightning and thunder.

"Let's hurry up," Alan suggested as the first drops of rain wetted their clothes. Mark quickly recalled Scyther and they ran down the last hill.

* * *

By coincidence, Mark happened to glance at the shadow under a large rock near the road to Stormy Town. He stopped.

"What was that?"

May came over and looked. "What?"

"I just thought I saw something," Mark muttered, still staring into the shadow. "Like red eyes…"

"You must be seeing things," she just said. Mark shrugged and turned around.

May stared into the shadow for a few seconds before finally shaking her head and running to catch up with the boys.


	31. The Dragons of Ouen

**Chapter 30: The Dragons of Ouen**

Stormy Town had once been a normal town that happened to have somewhat frequent thunderstorms. It had been lively and populated as shown when its formerly unofficial Gym was given official status. 'Stormy Town' had in fact only been a sort of nickname affectionately given to it by its resident Gym leader.

However, around twenty years before the three soaked kids made their way towards the flickering neon lettering they could just barely read through the thick sheet of rain as "P.C", the thunderstorms had begun to get more frequent. No one had been able to explain why. Scientists had claimed that it was just a period that would pass, but it never did, and as the city only got fewer and fewer hours of calm weather, the inhabitants had eventually given up. They had started referring to it as Stormy Town themselves, the rest of Ouen following. Many had moved away; a few had stayed but more or less stopped going outside. The Pokémon League had offered to move the Gym's badge elsewhere, but the leader had promptly refused, saying that he would stay loyal to his city forever as long as the lightning did not strike him. He and later his son had fought to let the town keep its city rights, and the son had gotten Nurse Joy of Stormy Town to team up with him. Gradually the two of them had then taken over all services in the city. But despite their attempts, Stormy Town was now only visited by trainers who got their badges and then left as quickly as they could. The sad fact was that Stormy Town was dying.

Bells chimed as the door to the small Pokémon Center burst open and Mark, May and Alan quickly squeezed themselves into the warm lit room despite that the desk by the opposite wall was abandoned. The door closed behind them as Mark threw himself panting into a red sofa, appreciating the pink Pokémon Center carpet like he never had before. Alan and May sat down too as the bell chiming died away, leaving the rain's beating on the windows, the distant thunder and the kids' breathing as the only sound in the room.

"Good evening," came a soft, polite voice. Mark looked up, eying the face of a red-haired nurse as she closed a door to a back room quietly and walked behind the desk. She gave a small bow. "Would you like me to heal your Pokémon?"

Mark felt too exhausted to stand up, so as May and Alan prepared to hand theirs over, he simply detached his minimized Pokéballs from his belt and gave them to May. She rolled her eyes but didn't object.

After putting the Pokéballs into the healing machine, Nurse Joy sighed. "This building is in bad shape. Soon we'll have to move the Pokémon Center services into the Gym too…"

Mark nodded, not sure how to answer. May did not appear to be listening; she was raising her eyebrow at an advertising poster of some sort for the Stormy Town Gym, which bore the caption 'LET THE SPARK OF YOUR MIND LEAD YOU THROUGH A SHOCKING EXPERIENCE'.

"Well, either way," Nurse Joy went on, "the Gym has free accommodation for trainers if you're looking for that, and also a rather cheap restaurant. Sparky is a lovely cook."

May snorted. "The Gym leader's name is Sparky and he trains Electric Pokémon?"

The nurse giggled. "He sees the humour in it. He's quite an odd fellow, but you'll like him. Everybody does."

May didn't look convinced, but Alan ignored her, standing up. "Well, it's more or less dinnertime, so we should probably head over to the Gym, shouldn't we?"

* * *

The Gym was an extremely lively building and in such contrast with the look of the rest of the town that it almost seemed like a spaceship or gateway into another, happier world; the outside was painted in neon pink and blue while warm yellow light flooded through the large windows on the many floors. Of course, given how depressing Stormy Town was overall, something to cheer it up had to be a good thing, even if it was a bit extreme.

The pink tiled floor made a slight squashy sound as the kids stepped on it and the automatic door closed behind them. Mark eyed a large door just ahead of them, set with navy blue letters that said, "CAUTION: BATTLE ARENA – DO NOT ENTER WHILE A BATTLE IS TAKING PLACE."

"Are you looking for food or just hurrying to battle and get out of here?"

A short, thin man was walking down a staircase to the right while looking at them through stylish silver shades, wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts. The electric blue, wavy hair and small blue goatee looked dyed, but Mark wasn't quite sure. A gleeful, friendly expression filled his young face.

"Food for now," Alan replied. "Sparky, right?"

The man smiled. "Who else could it be?" His voice was the kind that seemed to constantly sound like he was in an internal laughing fit of some sort; it had that giggly element to it and sounded like he found everything highly amusing. "So are you going to battle later, or just coming to say hi?"

"Maybe tomorrow?" Mark suggested, looking forward to getting to bed. May shrugged.

"Tomorrow, why not," Sparky replied cheerfully. "Shouldn't you change your clothes, though?"

"Eh, right," Mark muttered, looking down at his waterlogged jeans. Alan nodded too. May merely gave a "Mmmh."

Sparky smiled. "Follow me," he said, turning back towards the staircase he just came down.

* * *

"Well, that guy was creepy."

"Creepy?" Mark asked. "Maybe a bit weird, but not creepy."

"He's creepily weird," May insisted.

"I found him nice," Alan just said, shrugging.

They were walking back down the stairs from their rooms after changing. Sparky seemed to have disappeared for the moment, but when they came back into the entrance hall they caught a glimpse of him behind a half-closed door marked "RESTAURANT" at the other end of the room and hurried into it.

Mark was surprised by the sudden change of atmosphere; the restaurant was rather dimly lit and cozy, with wooden furniture and not as much as a speck of the neon colors of the main Gym. Even Sparky himself had put a white cooking hat on his head and taken down his shades.

"Sit down," he offered, pointing them to a table by the right wall and reaching for a small notebook on a counter in the corner. "Would your Pokémon like to have something too? As long as they fit in here, of course," he added. "You'll get their food free – Pokémon aren't very picky in my experience."

"Eh… our Pokémon?" Mark asked as he sat down. "Do Pokémon usually eat at restaurants?"

Sparky smiled. "Usually not, but we can always make exceptions, can't we? Especially since you're the first staying guests in quite a while. Most trainers come here and run off as soon as possible like they fear being struck by lightning." He giggled, like the notion of being struck by lightning in Stormy Town was absurd.

"Um… All right." Mark sent out all his Pokémon except Gyarados, shortly followed by Alan and then May. They quickly explained what was going on, but when it came to ordering, the Pokémon doubtfully asked for either raw meat or raw salad with nothing, the only exception being Scyther, who sat uninvited down on the chair beside Mark and ordered beer.

Sparky raised his eyebrows. "Are you quite sure?"

"I'm used to it," Scyther just said.

"And how are you planning to hold the glass, if I may be so bold?" Sparky asked, his eyes twinkling in amusement.

"If you've got a large bowl or something… I'd like a lot of it…"

"I see," Sparky replied, scribbling it down. May and Alan both looked at Mark, who merely answered with a freaked-out expression, having no idea what to say.

"Well, your food will be ready soon," Sparky said, looking over them again and disappearing into the kitchen.

It wasn't long before the Gym leader returned with the drinks for the kids and then what looked like a big kitchen pot, putting it in front of Scyther.

"Don't drink too much of it all at once," he said cheerfully before walking back into the kitchen.

May and Alan stared at the pot; Mark subtly peeked into it to see it was around three-quarters full of a golden, fizzy drink. Scyther smelled it and smiled before plunging his whole head into it. Mark jumped, edging slightly further away from Scyther in his seat.

"What the hell were you thinking?" May hissed at Mark, leaning forward across the table. "You should have stopped him from ordering it!"

Mark glanced anxiously at Scyther, who still had his head completely subdued. "I just didn't know how… And Scyther is used to that stuff, isn't he?"

The mantis' head emerged from the pot; he shook his head, sending droplets of beer flying at the kids. May moved backwards from the table in disgust.

"Refreshing," Scyther mumbled. Mark looked at him; the Pokémon's eyes had already lost some of their normal alertness, which was slightly worrying. Scyther's head dropped back into the pot.

When he came out again, he was actually getting slightly cross-eyed. "This reminds me of back when Rob and I used to go to the Gamesharked Skarmory… Great place, that… Crunchy… Caterpie…"

He reached dizzily out with his scythe in a much too careless manner, coming very close to knocking down a candle. The mantis didn't appear to notice this, continuing to lap up the drink for a second before looking at Mark.

"Love is fake," he announced randomly. "It's all just a bunch of hormones that want you to have sex and kids… Sickle was nice… but love… it's not…"

The mantis closed his eyes. "Mmm… delightful… if you want a piece of advice from an adult, kids, don't ever fall in love… Not worth it… Yes, very enjoyable… killing is kinda fun when you've been doing it for your whole life, you know…"

"Scyther, you're drunk," May said bluntly.

Scyther looked stupidly at her for a few seconds. "Whatever," he then mumbled and collapsed on the table.

"Oh dear," Sparky said, entering the room with the kids' food. "I guess Pokémon are rather sensitive to alcohol. One more lesson in running restaurants, isn't it?"

He turned to Mark as he gently laid the plates down on the table. "If I were you, I'd recall him."

Mark nodded and touched Scyther with his Pokéball to absorb him in, feeling slightly guilty for letting this happen. He mentally smacked himself. _Stop being so responsible… It's his problem…_

Scyther still stayed in the front of his mind during dinner.

* * *

Mark decided to let Jolteon, Sandslash, Leta and Dragonair sleep outside their Pokéballs. Jolteon curled up on the end of the bed and Leta followed suit; Dragonair and Sandslash curled up on the floor.

He lay down in the bed, pulled the blanket over him and was quickly fast asleep.

* * *

Mark stood in the grass outside Green Town, people counting down all around him. All of a sudden, Chaletwo's grayish shape stood in the middle. Two immeasurably bright eyes opened and the world turned black as horrible pain took over him…

* * *

Jolteon knew he was unbeatable. He wouldn't have to worry about the Dugtrio and its menacing three heads, glinting evilly at him with six small eyes.

The heads started moving up and down, gaining speed until the ground trembled. Jolteon suddenly felt weak and powerless against it and his eyes hopelessly snapped open. He blinked, discovering that the earthquake had only been the movement of the blanket as Mark flailed around and mumbled in his sleep. Jolteon looked at Leta; she had not noticed it and was still fast asleep. He quietly stood up as his trainer stopped moving, tiptoed over to his head and gently touched his forehead; it was cold and sweaty.

Jolteon stroked his fur against Mark's hand, hoping to give him some comfort. He was soon fast asleep again.

* * *

Chaletwo's eyes slowly shut again as the pain faded away. The colors of the world returned to normal, but they were no longer outside Green Town, but on top of the mountain above Stormy Town. Black clouds loomed over them, releasing bolts of lightning every now and then that lit up the town far below.

Chaletwo stared down at the city, his expression showing fear and regret, bordering on despair.

"_I sense power,_" said his telepathic voice emptily.

"The thunderstorm?" Mark said as Chaletwo showed no signs of being about to continue. The legendary shook his head.

"_No… It is a Pokémon's power… But yes, it is what is behind this thunderstorm._"

"Raikou? Zapdos?" Mark suggested.

"_Rick has them captured,_" Chaletwo replied, still staring down at the town.

"What is it then?"

"_It could only be a Pokémon nobody knows exists…_" Chaletwo said softly. Mark was about to say something when the legendary added in a whisper, "_It's Thunderyu, the first Dragon of Ouen._"

"So you know of it?" Mark asked blankly.

"_Of course I know, I created it!_" Chaletwo suddenly snapped, looking at Mark.

"Er…" Mark paused. "What?"

Chaletwo sighed. "_I was naïve… Way back when Mew and I were creating the Pokémon, Mew wanted to create all the legendaries… and I thought it was unfair…_"

The legendary shook his head hatefully. "_Kanto, Johto and Hoenn all had three elemental legendaries… so I made three for Ouen on my own, three dragons who loathed each other more than they loved life itself…I sealed them away and put them to deep sleep where Mew could not find them, and intended to bring them out later and show Mew that I could create and be in control… that I could rule the world without Mew… but I never woke them up, and in all the hassle about preventing the War of the Legends, I forgot that my powers that were keeping them asleep were fading… and as soon as they are fully conscious, they will break out of their chambers and do whatever it takes to destroy each other…_"

Chaletwo looked down at the mountain they were standing on. "_Thunderyu is right under our feet, and he is waking up… and the worst part is that there is no way we can reach him until he breaks out…_"

He looked at Mark again. "_Ouen is in grave danger._"


	32. Spirit

**Chapter 31: Spirit**

Mark blinked, not sure where he was. He stared into the white ceiling for a few seconds while hearing the thunderstorm roar outside, and slowly remembered the events of the previous day.

_Chaletwo broke into my dream,_ he then realized. _I have… I have three more Pokémon to catch…_

He stroked over his face with his right hand, finding out that he was a bit sweaty. He sleepily reached for his digital watch on the bedside table and looked at it; it was ten AM on the ninth of June.

Ninth of June.

He had turned twelve a few hours ago.

He blinked again. Twelve. He had looked forward to turning twelve. It was a much nicer number than eleven, somehow. Now he'd have to remember to answer twelve when asked about his age.

Of course, the nice, pleasant birthday thoughts didn't take long to turn into "Perhaps I'll never live to be thirteen…" He shook it off, quietly sat up and got dressed before waking his Pokémon up.

There was a knock on his door. "Mark? We should train for the Gym a bit, shouldn't we? I'm going, at least, and Alan is tagging along – if you want to come, then come now."

"Yeah, I'm coming," Mark called back and recalled his Pokémon. He took out his Pokédex and switched Scyther to the computer; the mantis was still slightly ahead of his other Pokémon in level, and it might be good to let him rest after yesterday, anyway.

He walked up to the door and opened it to find both May and Alan outside.

"Slow," May muttered as they walked along the corridor and down the stairs to the entrance.

Outside, the weather had gotten somewhat better since yesterday – it was not raining as much, although the clouds still loomed in the sky and released occasional bolts of lightning. _Perhaps Thunderyu is sleeping more soundly now_, he figured, soon afterwards realizing that May and Alan didn't know about his dream.

"Um… Chaletwo sorta… broke into my dream tonight," he muttered as they were coming close to Ruxido. A small stream flowed in soft bends out of the forest close by.

May turned around and raised an eyebrow. "He 'sorta' broke into your dream? Did he or didn't he?"

Mark gritted his teeth. "Either that or he woke me up and teleported me up on that mountain over there in my pajamas in the middle of the night." To emphasize his point, he pointed frustratedly to the mountain, which he was quick to recognize as definitely the same mountain as the one in the dream. He could almost feel Thunderyu nearly conscious in some hidden chamber deep inside the rock. He shivered.

May shrugged. "Well, if all you wanted to tell us was that Chaletwo took you on an imaginary mountain hike…"

"It's not all I wanted to tell you!" Mark shouted. "Will you just listen to me?"

"Then what…" May couldn't finish the sentence; Alan elbowed her very hard with a just-shut-up sideways glance before she could finish it. She trod down on his foot without looking at him.

"So, er… what did Chaletwo say?" Alan asked in a pained voice, making no attempts to get her off his feet.

Mark stared at them. "Um, he just told me there are three crazy dragons added to all those insanely many legendaries I have to try to catch somehow."

They blinked.

"More?" May asked. "What the heck? Weren't you already supposed to catch all the legendaries?"

Mark wasn't sure whether to tell them the whole story of the creation of the dragons; something told him not to, and he had a distinct suspicion that this something was Chaletwo's doing. Going around the truth, he said, "Well, basically, he thought those were already taken care of, but they weren't."

May's left eyebrow ascended on her forehead. "Umm… so… where are those new legendaries of yours? Does Chaletwo even know?"

"One is inside that mountain over there," Mark said and pointed. "Supposedly it's what's causing the thunderstorms here…"

"In Thunderclap Cave?" Alan asked curiously. "My dad went there with some scientists to research the cause of the storm, but their sensors didn't find any signs of an Electric Pokémon."

"_Thunderyu is closed away sleeping in a chamber that only my eyes can see_," Chaletwo's telepathic voice said before Mark could reply. "_To any other sensors, he is invisible. Thunderyu will most likely break from his chamber into Thunderclap Cave once he is fully conscious, and then crawl out of it and find the other dragons… We will have to be ready to meet him when he comes._"

Alan blinked. "When should this happen?"

"_Soon,_" Chaletwo sighed. "_Very soon…_"

"Why don't we just break in and take Thunderyu while it's still half-conscious?" May suggested.

"_The chambers are made so that only the dragons themselves can break out of them…_" In a spiteful tone, Chaletwo added privately to Mark, "_I was too ingenious when I was young._"

_Wait…_ Mark suddenly thought, _you're keeping them asleep, right? Can't you lift it off for example Thunderyu, and then you'll have more energy to keep the others sleeping?_

"_Mark just had a good idea,_" Chaletwo said quickly to all of them. "_I can wake them up one at a time, you can fight them, and then the others will sleep longer._"

May looked skeptically at Mark and frowned. "That doesn't make sense," she said. "Why would the others sleep longer if one is awake?"

Chaletwo sighed. "_Don't you think I know it better than you?_" he said grumpily.

May raised an eyebrow and glanced suspiciously at Mark, but didn't ask. He was very relieved.

"_Still,_" Chaletwo added, "_it's not a good idea to fight Thunderyu immediately. He is too powerful. You should have time to train your Pokémon some._"

"You know, Chaletwo," May said slowly, "why don't you just Death Stare them? That way we're rid of them for good in just a few seconds, without having to put ourselves or our Pokémon in danger. Sounds like a much better idea if you ask me. I understand you wouldn't want to kill the other legendaries in cold blood, I mean, you've probably known them for a while, but hasn't this Thunderyu guy just been stuck inside a mountain sleeping for a thousand years? Nobody can be very personally attached to him."

There was a very long silence. May folded her arms; Alan looked a bit doubtful.

"_I… they… I couldn't…_" Chaletwo said shakily after a long while. "_I mean… I've gotten weaker…_" Then his voice died down.

Mark got another very skeptical look from May, but she still did not say anything.

"Chaletwo?" Mark asked carefully, but got no answer.

May shrugged. "Well, if we have to do things the hard way, he told us to train, didn't he? Sounds like a good idea to me."

Still a bit worried, Mark nodded and looked anxiously at his Pokéballs as if worried that one of them had disappeared. He shook his head at himself.

"Um… is there anything I can help you with?" asked a hesitant voice. Mark jerked his head upwards and saw a young man of maybe nineteen or twenty approaching them along with two bipedal Pokémon that resembled strange hybrids of rodents and reptiles. One of them was a purple, masculine Nidoking with a long, pointed horn; the other was a more feminine-looking blue Nidoqueen.

"What? Help? No. Why?" May asked.

The man shrugged. "Well, my Pokémon noticed something although they aren't sure what exactly it was, and when I went to check on it, you looked a bit upset for a second."

Mark looked at him. "We're fine, but are you a Pokémon trainer? We were about to train for the Gym. A battle would be nice, if you have the time."

"Sure," the man said, digging into his pocket and taking out a few Pokéballs.

"Wait a minute," May interrupted, "either you're seriously overgrown or you're several years older than him. How strong are your Pokémon?"

Mark felt stupid not to have considered that, but the man shook his head. "I'm studying to be a breeder. I don't really battle a lot, so they're just level forty-ish. Four on four?"

Mark nodded and walked a few steps away to leave room for the Pokémon to act. "Go, Sandslash!" he shouted and threw forward a Pokéball which burst open and sent out his pangolin Pokémon.

"Oh, yeah, and my name is Dan," the man added with a slight smile, looking at the Pokéballs in his palm and picking one. "Go, Lanturn!"

He threw the ball and it popped open just above the surface of the stream, sending out a blue anglerfish Pokémon with a yellow mask around its eyes. The natural fishing rod extending from its head had a yellow bulb at the end of it.

Mark looked at it and narrowed his eyes. This would be rather difficult for Sandslash if he was not going to get wet; Earthquake's ripples would not affect it through the water and aside from that, Sandslash only really knew Slash and maybe Poison Sting. Defense Curl. Something like that. None of it would be of much help without taking risks.

Oh well. He was feeling brave on his birthday.

"Sandslash, I know it sounds crazy, but jump into the water and try to get a Poison Sting in."

"Lanturn, don't let him get you!" Dan quickly countered as Sandslash rushed towards the stream and dived in without question. He gasped for air and it suddenly dawned on to Mark how loyal Sandslash always was. He couldn't ever recall him disobeying a command, no matter how hurt it would result in him getting. He felt a little bit guilty; did Sandslash really have a reason to trust him so much? He watched as Sandslash attempted to swim, but Lanturn was much faster and avoided him fairly easily while he tried to attack.

"Spark," Dan said simply, and in an instant the stream was filled with showers of electric sparks. Sandslash screamed somewhere in the middle of it all; he may have been a Ground type, but in the water he was still vulnerable to electricity…

"Get out of there!" Mark shouted in panic, but then he heard the Lanturn screech and saw that somehow, Sandslash had managed to stab a claw into the fish's body. A few drops of purple fluid were dissolving into the water while Sandslash desperately climbed back onto the bank, cold and shivering.

"Water Gun!" Dan ordered, and the Lanturn, after shutting its eyes briefly in pain as the poison hurt it, raised its head above the surface of the water and squirted a stream of water from its mouth at the weak pangolin Pokémon. Sandslash shut his eyes and allowed his consciousness to drift away. There was nothing Mark could do.

He paused. "Err, go, Jolteon."

Mark's own Electric Pokémon let out a battle cry as he materialized from his Pokéball on the ground. He crouched down and watched the fish Pokémon carefully, charging up electricity in his fur and then, without an order, released a bolt of lightning at Lanturn.

Mark didn't have anything against this turn of events; he had been planning to do that anyway. However, the fact that the fish did not seem hurt at all by the jolt of electricity – if anything, it looked healthier than before – was very puzzling.

Jolteon looked with annoyance at the Lanturn and did the same again, equally unsuccessful at hurting it.

Dan smirked. "Water Pulse."

The fish jumped up and spat out waves of water that hit Jolteon powerfully. He moaned and squeezed his eyes shut; then he shook his spiky fur and retaliated with a flurry of needles. The Lanturn responded by diving down deeper, but the stream was not deep enough for it to avoid being hit at all and it came up with some minor cuts.

"Thunder Wave," Mark said quickly, and Jolteon sent another wave of electricity towards Lanturn. This time it did seem to have an effect; the anglerfish slowed down, moving more stiffly, which gave Jolteon the opportunity to fire a second Pin Missile.

"Another Water Pulse," Dan said sharply, and Lanturn sent another wave of water at Jolteon. This time he had a harder time standing up again; he looked a little dizzy.

"Bite," Mark ordered worriedly. Jolteon shook his head to focus and leapt into the water at Lanturn. Succeeding to sink his fangs into the fish's tail thanks to Lanturn's paralysis, Jolteon clawed a bit at the anglerfish, but then Lanturn shook him off and he climbed back up to the bank.

"Water Gun!" Dan shouted, but Lanturn flinched for a second, which gave Mark another opportunity to act.

"Quick, Pin Missile!"

Jolteon started raising his fur, but then the confusion got the better of him. For a few moments he just stood there like he was trying to remember what he was going to do next; then he dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Mark bit his lip. Two of his Pokémon were already down. He desperately hoped Dan was not capable of anything more than this, but hesitantly picked Dragonair's Pokéball.

"Do it, Dragonair!" he shouted and threw the ball.

The slender dragon ascended into the air as soon as he gained material form and watched his opponent.

"Ice Beam!" Dan called, and Lanturn fired a beam of ice crystals towards Dragonair. He cried out in pain as he was hit, struggling to maintain his altitude while he shivered. He was clearly having trouble with it and Dan was about to open his mouth again…

"Wait, Dragonair, lie down flat, quick!" Mark blurted out. The dragon heard him and immediately practically dropped to the ground right at the bank of the stream. Despite taking a hit when he landed, he was still conscious, and could flatten himself against the grass.

Dan frowned. "Lanturn, jump out of the water and Ice Beam from there."

The fish made a respectable attempt to jump, but the paralysis made it unable to get to any height where it could fire another Ice Beam. Mark looked hopefully at Dragonair.

"Now, uh… What moves do you know again?" Mark asked hesitantly. He heard May snort behind him. Dan just raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly.

"Twister," Dragonair muttered, still lying where he was. "Dragon Rage… Slam…"

"Dragon Rage, then," Mark ordered, figuring that both Slam and Twister would require Dragonair to move out of his safe position.

"Dive deep into the water," Dan countered. Mark immediately realized that this would not work; Dragonair breathed dark flames but they barely licked the surface of the stream while Lanturn was safe below it.

"Okay, then…" Again, Mark was feeling braver than usual. "Slam."

Dragonair suddenly sprang up with a loud, frightening hiss that seemed to oppose the serene air of his usual appearance, and dove into the water headfirst. Lanturn jumped, obviously having not known what the dragon was doing up on the bank, and started charging up electricity to counter him, but Dragonair quickly whipped his tail at the fish and smashed the two shiny blue pearls on the tip into its head.

Lanturn was instantly knocked unconscious by the heavy blow, turned upside-down in the water and floated lazily to the surface. Dan recalled it without words and pulled out a second Pokéball. It occurred to Mark that by now, the notion of actually managing to win was downright ridiculous; one of Dan's Pokémon had taken out two of his and worn a third one out quite a bit.

But he wouldn't go down without a fight. Not on his birthday. Besides, it was just for training.

"Go, Clare!"

The ball sent out a large, graceful, brown bird with a golden and red crest of long feathers on her head. She let out a cry as she flew high up and looked down at her opponent. Dragonair flew into the air and faced her.

Dan looked proudly at his Pidgeot before issuing an order: "Featherdance!"

Clare flapped her wings in Dragonair's direction, and thousands of small, soft feathers of down flurried out from underneath her coat of feathers towards the dragon, limiting both his vision and his ability to move. Dragonair said something, but his voice was so muffled by the down that Mark didn't hear it.

"Twister to get them away!"

Mark could see Dragonair start to spin in mid-air and attempt to reach the speed required to create a whirlwind, but he was unsuccessful; the down limited his movements too much, and Dan's Pidgeot was making sure there was always more and more of it.

Most ordinary trainers with Mark's level of battling experience would at this point have issued a Dragon Rage to burn the feathers, after being so conveniently reminded of its existence just moments before, but he was no ordinary trainer. He had an obsession with legends, and it just so happened that the Dragon type, with its mythical qualities, fell somewhat within his range of interest. And therefore he knew that while dragon flames had none of the disadvantages of regular fire, they had none of the advantages either.

Additionally, he happened to have some very creative Pokémon.

"Dragonair, remember that fire attack of yours from the Attack Approval? Use it!" he said quickly. Somewhere within the cloud of down, Dragonair appeared to have gotten the same idea: just as Mark made his order, the innermost feathers burst into flames and for a split second, the dragon was surrounded by a ring of floating flames. Then the fire dissolved, the charred remains of the Featherdance drifting lazily to the ground.

"Clare, use an Aerial Ace!"

When Dragonair managed to comprehend his surroundings again, the Pidgeot had folded her wings nearer to her body and was already swooping down at him at such a speed that he hardly saw her coming.

"Look out!" Mark shouted, but only a fraction of a second later, Clare made a razor-sharp, accurate cut across Dragonair's body with her talons. The dragon screamed in pain as silvery dragon blood lined the area of his skin around the cut; somehow, however, he was able to breathe a plume of fire at the Pidgeot before she assumed he would be able to counterattack, taking her by surprise. She cried out as she rapidly flapped her scorched wings to put out the last flames; she did not appear particularly hurt, though.

"Okay, Fly!" Dan ordered, and Clare shot upwards in the air. Mark had one of those rare sparks of old Battling lessons that had sunk in:

"Twister!"

Just as the Pidgeot was diving back down, Dragonair managed to produce a tornado that could strike her even as high in the air as she was. Granted, it did not hurt her that much, but at least Dragonair went out with a bang; a second after the Twister died, Clare tackled him harshly in mid-air and knocked him unconscious.

"You did a good job," Mark said as he recalled his Pokémon. It was true. Dragonair had been of far more use than both Sandslash and Jolteon, as much as he hated to differentiate between his Pokémon.

"Now…" Mark paused. He probably would have sent out Charizard, but then he realized that it was not like he was about to win this anytime soon. This was meant as training, and he hadn't even sent out the Pokémon that was in the most need of some.

"Go, Leta."

The little white Pokémon came out of the Pokéball in a sitting position and looked around. She saw the huge bird, but for some bizarre reason, she didn't seem the least bit afraid. Mark thought to himself that if he were her size, he definitely would be.

Dan looked at her with the sort of expression people tend to have when looking at cute things.

"Fly… just try to finish her off quickly."

Clare nodded and ascended quickly into the air.

"Umm, Leta, try to dodge it, like by hiding under a tree or…"

Mark shut up when he realized that Leta showed no signs of noticing that he was talking at all, let alone doing what he said. She sat there on the ground in plain view where she would be extremely easy to hit, and looked innocently upwards at the Pidgeot while swishing her tail back and forth.

Mark glanced upwards; Clare seemed to be preparing to dive up among the clouds. "Leta, get out of the way!" he hissed.

But his Pokémon blissfully ignored him, staring up at the bird that was about to most likely knock her out in one hit with those large red eyes that never blinked…

Seconds before Clare would have hit her, Leta stepped to the side a little bit. Ordinarily, the Pidgeot would simply have changed her direction slightly, but surprisingly enough, the bird crashed headfirst into the ground, actually a meter away from where Leta had originally been. At first Mark was puzzled, but then he saw the bird's peacefully closed eyes and realized that Leta had hypnotized her while she was focusing on her target in the dive. The tip of Clare's outstretched right wing was just an inch away from the spot where Leta was now sitting; either she was extremely lucky or a great deal more clever than Mark had ever thought she was.

"Clare, are you all right?" Dan asked worriedly, pulling out a Pokéball. When there was definitely no response at all, he let the red beam of the ball recall her.

Dan frowned and it was clear he hadn't expected the small, innocent-looking Pokémon to pull something like this either. He fiddled with his Pokéballs, but meanwhile Leta closed her eyes and lowered her head, slowly being wrapped in a white glow.

"You're evolving!" Mark realized in delight as the small Pokémon started to grow. Her proportions became more adult-like, her body, legs and neck lengthening while her head stayed more or less the same size. A pointy mask grew on her face, similar to that of the Letaligon Mark had met in the forest, although the blade on the top of her head was much shorter while there were no blades at the side of her head at all, just metal below the cheekbone that pointed upwards behind her eyes.

"Leee!" she cried in a deeper voice than before, examining the new coat of metallic armor on her back and her rather stiffer tail. Mark pointed his Pokédex at her.

"Letal, armored Pokémon," it announced. "These Pokémon love to…"

Mark closed the Pokédex before it could finish; he was in the middle of a battle after all.

"Hmm," Dan said, looking at the newly-evolved Letal.

"Should I take care of her?" asked his Nidoking, looking up at him.

"Yeah, you can," Dan replied. "Go, Elvis!"

The reptilian rodent stepped forward and faced Letal with his horn pointed forward. Letal growled at him.

"Earthquake!" Dan ordered. Elvis leapt into the air and slammed himself down into the ground again, producing a series of ripples in the ground as if it had turned liquid. Letal, having most likely never experienced an Earthquake attack before, was confused and didn't figure to jump before the waves reached her; she stiffened as the ripples hit her paws and started to shiver uncontrollably while the Earthquake faded away. Her metallic armor would most likely continue to echo the waves like a chiming bell for several seconds afterwards.

"Now, Megahorn," Dan said. "Try to hit it where it's vulnerable."

While Letal was still confused and scared, the Nidoking ran towards her with his long, sharp horn glowing with a lime green tint. Letal realized this and attempted to leap out of the way, but the horn stabbed into her side just below the armor and she collapsed when she landed with a weak moan. Mark recalled her with a truthful "Great job".

"Good battle," Dan said, but immediately had his mind on his Pidgeot. He sent her out into the grass and pulled out two spray bottles, one of them labelled as an Awakening but the other as a Super Potion. As he sprayed Clare with both of them, the bird Pokémon opened her eyes and managed to stand up and fly in a couple of circles without much difficulty.

"All right," he said, "I guess I'll be going, then."

Dan shook Mark's hand, as well as May's and Alan's, and then walked off towards Stormy Town with his Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

"Um," Mark said after a moment's pause, "shouldn't we get a bit further into the forest and see if we can find a good place to send for example Gyarados out at?"

They decided it would be a good idea to walk up the stream and see if there was a lake there somewhere. What they found was not much of a lake – more like a slightly wider and deeper part of the river – but they figured it would do.

Mark threw out Gyarados's Pokéball, and the sea monster emerged in the water.

"What now?" he asked dully.

"Training," Mark said and shrugged. He realized suddenly that he was highly unlikely to use Gyarados for either this Gym or for fighting Thunderyu, since he would be fried within one or two Electric attacks, but he figured he might as well prepare himself for later battles as well. Nonetheless, he decided it would not be a good idea to focus on a Pokémon he would not be using for what he was actually training for, and therefore sent out his other Pokémon too. Letal's wound got sprayed with a Potion from his bag and more or less healed within a few seconds.

"What's that?" May asked suddenly, jerking her head towards the right.

"What?" Alan asked, looking where she was looking in confusion.

For a few seconds nothing happened, but then all of a sudden, right from where May was looking, a great white beast emerged, leaping straight at her with gleaming ruby red eyes.

"What the…"

The Pokémon landed right in front of May, and Mark realized it was a medium-sized fox-like Pokémon with nine long tails and a long, graceful mane. It was the evolution of his favourite non-legendary Pokémon: a Ninetales.

"_…Spirit?_" May asked in a tone of disbelief.

"You know this Ninetales?" Mark asked, puzzled.

"Of course I do, she's my pet Vulpix!" May replied in a voice that sounded quite as weirded out as Mark was. "Or well, she _was_ a Vulpix. Where the hell did you get a Fire Stone? And that necklace?"

Mark now noticed that the Ninetales was much lighter than all other Ninetales he had seen – a regular Ninetales was a sort of light brownish-yellow, but this one was creamy white. She also had a black chain around her neck holding a symbol: an upside-down semi-triangle, maybe two inches tall and one wide, made of two small rubies and one larger.

"One question at a time," the Ninetales said – in plain English. Mark was immediately reminded of Gyarados and glanced at him; he looked just as confused as everybody else.

"I expect you want to know what has happened since I saw you last," Spirit said. "Well, some time after you left, I was paid a visit by the legendary Entei."

Mark's attention was instantly caught by the mention of Entei, especially now that knowing anything of Entei's location would be of great help.

"Entei told me that I was chosen, that all my previous troubles were a test of my strength, and that I was to find you and aid you. He said that the reason would be revealed soon enough, but would not tell anything more."

Everybody stared at her; she smiled slightly at the attention.

"I did not evolve from a Fire Stone, but from Entei's magical touch, and when I had evolved I found that Entei had vanished and I was carrying this necklace. When I examined myself, I also realized that instead of being darker than normal as I used to as a Vulpix, I was lighter.

"Now, I set out to find you. My special Ghost abilities which you will remember have proven to be exceedingly useful in this search, as they helped me sneak on a ferry to Ouen and also provided me with the ability to feel when you were close. I caught up with you in Black Desert, and there my special skills proved useful for you as well, when I interrupted your dreams and woke both of you in time to escape the Scorplack. I myself was in spirit form at the time and was therefore in no danger. From there on I followed you."

"Why didn't you come out of hiding earlier?" May asked.

"You know what we decided on when you left," the Pokémon replied. "It was not safe to emerge until you were alone where no one could find us. Additionally, I did not know if Entei had really wished for me to reveal myself at all. However, I had to step into the light now that I felt _his_ presence."

And the Ninetales turned her head towards Gyarados and bowed deeply.

"What is this all about?" the sea monster asked in a shaking voice, staring at Spirit. "What do I have to do with it?"

"You are the other," Spirit said softly. "You were chosen by Suicune and have only yet to receive his final blessing and become marked with light instead of dark…"

"Suicune tried to starve me," Gyarados spat angrily. "Suicune made my life hell. I hate Suicune."

"It was your test," Spirit went calmly on. Gyarados looked a mix between angry and scared.

"To hell with tests," he said, his voice trembling even more than before. "I don't want to be chosen. Nobody could have chosen me for anything."

But it was clear that he was not so sure about that last part – his ability to speak human, his dark color, his abnormal powers and his Dragon Beam all hinted that there was something very unusual about him – and from what they could make out of Spirit's story, the two were completely parallel. Starting out dark-colored, having unusual powers of a type not usually fully attributed to their species, being able to speak English – it all fitted perfectly.

"No," he finally said. "I don't want it. I hate Suicune."

"Very well," Spirit said, with the air of a parent giving in to a child's continuous claims of having an imaginary friend. "Perhaps Suicune has decided to give the final blessing to another Pokémon. After all, you are evolved and yet still dark."

Gyarados did not answer.

"Umm," Alan said, poking May in the shoulder, "you might want to explain her story a little bit better. I don't get it."

May sighed. "I found her starving on the street as a Vulpix when I was seven and thought she was cute, so I got my parents to let me keep her as a pet. It turned out she had all sorts of weird abilities like turning herself invisible and insubstantial, which we called her spirit form, and stuff like that which seemed like Ghost moves. I always planned to start my journey with her and like took her around town and showed off what she could do… Once when I was nine we met this rich kid from a very well-respected family in town and he was bragging about how he was going to start with a much better Pokémon and blah blah blah. A couple of days later he crawled in through the window and stole her with his father. I woke up and saw them, but I didn't do anything because I didn't find out she was gone until the next morning. I got my parents to call the police, but when the police came, they just said that most likely Spirit had run away. I tried to tell them what I had seen, but they didn't believe me because the guy was rich and I was nine, and just said that even if she had been stolen, there was no chance the thief would be found. I took matters into my own hands, did a bit of spying, found out where she was held in a Pokéball in the rich guy's house, and stole her back and let her destroy the ball.

"Well, unfortunately they suspected me, and turned out to have gotten me on some stupid security cameras or something. I got to keep Spirit only because she herself insisted that she was mine, not theirs. She couldn't convince them she had been stolen, though, because she remembered nothing after falling asleep and the rich guy said she had crawled in through their window and looked like she had amnesia. After that happened, I realized that it wasn't a good idea to carry a unique and valuable Pokémon like her on a Pokémon journey where she could get stolen and asked her to stay at home when I left on my journey. I think she said everything else that matters."

Alan stared at her. "You broke into a house?"

"Oh, stop taking the details out of context," May said in an annoyed voice. "That's what the police did, and that's why I don't like them."

Alan still looked slightly unnerved by the thought. Mark, of course, had heard the vague version of this story before at the police station in Scorpio City. The most important new detail was what exactly it was that May had retrieved from a supposed thief in such a controversial way, and he had to admit he was more comfortable with knowing (at least if May was telling the truth) that Spirit had been more decidedly stolen than her Quilava. Of course, she _had_ left out a couple of details in this version of the story (namely her supposed attack on a police officer), but perhaps Alan was better off not knowing.

"May," Spirit said, looking at Mark with her red eyes, "if this Gyarados has been travelling with him for all this time, perhaps I can try coming with you. Entei told me to help you, and I will no doubt be of more help on your team than I have been so far."

"I… guess…" May said, looking doubtfully at her Pokéballs.

"Come on, May," Alan said. "No need to be paranoid. Pokémon thefts are ridiculously rare, and if you carry your Pokéballs around your neck and we are always walking beside you anyway, there is no hope for a thief to steal her. Besides, as she said, Gyarados has been with Mark for a while and nobody has tried to steal him, right?"

Mark thought of the Mew Hunter and smiled. "Well, not specifically to steal him, anyway."

May hesitated. "She doesn't want to be in a Pokéball, though."

"Well, even better," Alan countered. "If somebody tried to steal her _now_, she could just turn herself to the spirit form thingymabob. And just 'catching' her now and letting her go again would prevent anybody from catching her in another Pokéball, right?"

"Right," May replied. "Okay, then."

She reached for her pocket, took out a normal Pokéball and held it forward in her hand. Spirit touched the sphere gently with her muzzle, and it popped open, transforming her into a shape of red light and sucking her inside. The ball fell to the ground and pinged.

As May reached for the ball again to let Spirit out, Gyarados closed his eyes painfully and turned away.

His hate was stronger than ever.


	33. The Birthday Party

**Chapter 32: The Birthday Party**

"Chaletwo," Mark muttered as the three kids walked back towards Stormy Town after their training session, "you don't happen to know anything about this chosen-by-legendaries thing, do you?"

"_No,_" came Chaletwo's voice. It sounded a bit empty and Mark figured he might still be upset after May's uncomfortable suggestion earlier. "_I don't get why I don't know about this. Mew would have told me if Mew knew about it, too. How can they just do something like this without consulting us? We created them! What a way to thank us!_"

Mark decided to ignore the last bit to avoid making him more upset. "I don't assume you have any idea what exactly they were chosen _for_, then?"

"_No._"

"Well, it doesn't look like Spirit knows, either – she's kinda cryptic about it. What about Raikou? Do you think Raikou chose anybody?"

"_What would I know?" Chaletwo replied in frustration. "Well, Raikou is held captured at the Cleanwater City Gym, so most likely not. Now stop bothering me. I have more important things on my mind._"

Mark fell silent. He watched May and Alan walk a few meters ahead of him with Spirit trotting along beside May, and wondered why he always let them walk ahead of him while he himself was sulking somewhere behind them having depressing conversations with Scyther or Chaletwo. It _was_ his birthday, after all. He should be having a good time.

He quickened his pace and caught up with the others.

* * *

Sparky walked out of the restaurant just as the kids entered the Gym.

"Oh, hello again!" he said cheerfully. "Were you going to battle today?"

"Not me," Alan replied, but Mark and May nodded.

"Forgive me for asking," Sparky said, peering at them with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, "but aren't you both a little bit older than kids normally start?"

"Yeah, I'm twelve," May replied.

"Me too," Mark said, feeling some strange pride as he said it. May looked at him.

"I thought you were eleven."

"Not anymore," Mark answered with a grin. "It's my birthday today."

There. He had said it. Mark watched Sparky's smile widen.

"Oh, really? Have an absolutely fantastic birthday! You don't mind me making a birthday cake for the occasion for you and your friends, do you?" Sparky said eagerly.

This was a little more than Mark had expected. "Uh, sure," he said awkwardly, blushing slightly. "What about the battle?"

"Oh, you can warm up against my junior trainers while I'm making it," Sparky replied with a shrug. "You can go first, since it's your birthday after all. Then I can maybe get your friends to help me make the cake, too?" He looked questioningly at Alan and May.

"Sure!" Alan said immediately. "And happy birthday, Mark."

May didn't look like she was particularly keen on delaying her Gym battle to make a birthday cake. She took a quick longing look at the door to the battle arena, but then gave Mark a forced smile. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," he said, smiling happily back at May just to rub it in. "So do I just walk in through the door or…?"

"Yes," Sparky answered. "He should be in there somewhere, at least if he hasn't forgotten about the battle. I wouldn't be surprised." He giggled a little but then waved Mark towards the door. "Go ahead and don't worry about us."

Mark took a deep breath and walked the few steps up to the door with the navy lettering, looking through the glass. The room behind it was huge. It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps he would have been better off watching May battle those guys first so he could pick up strategies, but he was not about to turn back. He grabbed the door handle and opened.

"Hello?" he called as he closed the door behind him. It did not echo; the walls appeared to be covered with a layer of rubber that absorbed the sound. Mark guessed that was mainly to prevent damage from electricity.

"Hi," said the voice of a blond-haired boy who was sitting in the middle of a ladder on the wall to the far right which led up to a door. He wore a red jacket with white linings and was most likely around Alan's age or so. "You're the kid who was going to battle?"

Mark nodded. "Yeah."

The boy jumped down and landed on the floor with a soft thump. "All right, then. Go, Magnemite."

The boy hurled forward a Pokéball which popped open a few meters closer to the middle of the room. A round, metallic Pokémon with two horseshoe-shaped magnets on either side of it popped out. It hovered a meter or so above the ground and watched Mark; it had only one huge, round eye with a tiny pupil.

Mark had one of those rare sparks of Battling class memories: Mrs. Grodski had mentioned fleetingly on a hot day in one of the earlier Battling classes that despite hovering in the air, Magnemite would be affected by an Earthquake. The only reason he remembered it was that he himself had been the one who had demanded an explanation and, upon not understanding a word of what the teacher said, started an argument about it. This had been more or less the start of their mutual dislike. Much later, when he was old enough to be able to grasp how it worked, Mark had found the answer again in a library book. For short, he knew exactly what to do now.

"Go, Sandslash, and use an Earthquake!"

He threw the Pokéball powerfully out. The junior trainer's expression became a bit sheepish as Sandslash materialized in the air and prepared for the attack, landing harshly and producing ripples on the ground. As they passed under the magnet Pokémon, they disturbed the electromagnetic force holding it in the air, and it dropped to the ground after teetering in the air for a couple of seconds. Now exposed to the full force of the super-effective attack, the Magnemite easily fainted.

The junior trainer shrugged and recalled the Magnemite. "Go on, then," he said, pointing loosely at the ladder he had been sitting in when Mark entered.

Mark looked at him in puzzlement. "That's all?"

The trainer shrugged again. "Well, we're just here to warm you up a little bit so you don't get creamed as bad by Sparky. Nobody loses to us, really."

Mark decided not to take that as an insult, thanked the trainer for the battle and walked towards the ladder. Once through the door at the end of it, Mark had to walk up a staircase, through another door, and then finally arrived at another arena, identical to the previous one. A brown-haired girl walked impatiently back and forth at the other end and looked up when Mark closed the door.

"Oh, hi," she called. "One on one, okay?"

The girl threw out a Pokéball without waiting for an answer. The ball opened and the red light inside it formed into a cute pink sheep Pokémon that sat down on the arena and wagged its tail.

Mark took a deep breath. Flaaffy was not a final form Pokémon. Additionally, the other junior trainer's Magnemite had been a joke to take down. He had to train some other Pokémon than Sandslash, anyway; Thunderyu might be able to fly, and in that case, Earthquake would be rather useless…

The Flaaffy looked at him with dark, beady eyes as he grabbed Dragonair's Pokéball and threw it into the battle arena.

"Go, Dragonair!"

The snakelike dragon Pokémon spun a few circles in mid-air as he materialized from the Pokéball and breathed a plume of dark-colored flames into the air before settling down on the ground and perking up his feathery ears.

"Show-off," Mark muttered with a slight smile.

"Flaaffy, Thunder Wave!" the girl yelled. Her Pokémon got down on four feet with its tail raised into the air. Small sparks circled the pink orb at the tail tip as it charged towards Dragonair.

"Fly up!" Mark blurted out, and the dragon obeyed immediately, raising himself up from the ground with graceful, swimming movements. For a moment he thought Dragonair would evade the attack, but then –

"FLAA-FY!" the sheep cried, leaping fiercely after the dragon Pokémon. Now entirely sparkling with electricity, the Flaaffy smashed its tail into Dragonair's body and then landed on its feet on the floor below. Dragonair was thrown backwards but managed to keep his balance, and countered with a Dragon Rage, engulfing Flaaffy in crimson flames.

The sheep stood quickly up again with a determined expression, charged up further electricity in its tail and sent a bolt of lightning flying at the blue dragon. Dragonair wasn't fast enough to dodge it now that he was paralyzed and cried out in pain as the electricity coursed through his body. He was getting too weak combined to maintain his altitude and dropped stiffly down to the floor.

"Dragonair, Slam!" Mark ordered, quickly followed by the girl's fast-spoken command:

"Flaaffy, Body Slam!"

The Flaaffy was quicker, and with a high-pitched cry, it jumped into the air and slammed its whole body onto Dragonair's. A muffled "Draaa" came from the dragon to indicate that he was all right; Dragonair then managed to smash his tail into Flaaffy's head, subsequently causing the sheep to fall off him and allow him to slither out of the way.

"Dragon Rage!" Mark shouted as the Flaaffy prepared for another assault. Dragonair tried to focus as the sheep charged at him; then unexpectedly, he managed to fling himself over Flaaffy somehow and then blast out dragon flames for the finish as Flaaffy attempted to turn around. It let out a weak "Flaaaaa…" before closing its eyes and giving up.

"Nice job, Flaaffy," the girl cheered as she recalled her Pokémon into the ball. "Go ahead," she then said to Mark and pointed to a ladder similar to the one in the arena on the below floor.

A dark-haired teenager greeted Mark on the next floor. He wore a simple white T-shirt and ordinary jeans.

"Okay, another one-on-one," the boy said indifferently. "Go, Raichu!"

He threw forth a Pokéball that burst open quickly to have the red light inside it materialize into an orange mouse-like Pokémon with a long, black tail, tipped with a lightning bolt shape.

Mark paused to think again. This was a Raichu – an evolved Pokémon, and therefore he couldn't expect it to be particularly easy to beat. Flaaffy had been a nasty surprise for Dragonair, too. Charizard and Scyther were ruled out, having a weakness to electricity (he had switched Gyarados to the computer before the kids walked back to Stormy Town earlier, figuring that he was definitely not going to use him), and Dragonair was hurt. That left Sandslash and Letal. The question was: would Letal be able to beat the Raichu?

_Oh, come on,_ he thought to himself. _Sparky has got to have something up his sleeve against Ground Pokémon. If Letal can't beat that guy, I'm not going to have a chance against Sparky anyway, period. Besides, she did very well while we were training, and the battle with Dan only showed that she's full of surprises._

"Go, Letal!" Mark called out and hurled the Pokéball towards the center of the arena. Letal emerged from the ball and let out an intimidating, metallic cry as she fixed her gaze on the Raichu.

"Okay, start this off with a Thunder Wave," the trainer said to his Pokémon – he looked somewhat impressed by Letal, unless Mark was just imagining things. "Better to play it safe."

"Letal, try to avoid it," Mark said slightly nervously. "Paralysis is a nasty thing…"

Letal suddenly turned towards him and growled, and Mark realized with pain that she would know – he had caught Leta while she was paralyzed.

Just then, the Raichu released a wave of electricity.

"Quick!" Mark yelled, his eyes widening. Letal turned sharply around but had no time to attempt to avoid it; she cowered as she was hit and her body sparkled.

"Great, Raichu," the other trainer cheered. "Now do a nice good Thunderbolt."

"Rai!" the Pokémon said hoarsely, got down on all fours and started to sparkle in preparation for the attack. For a second Mark watched Letal as she strained to move despite her stiff limbs, making strange, wheezy sounds as she breathed; then suddenly, just as the Raichu fired a bolt of electricity, Letal leapt upwards with a roar of effort and pain, dodged the attack and landed on top of the mouse Pokémon with her sharp, black claws digging into the skin on its back.

The Raichu squeaked but didn't hesitate to charge itself up with electricity that was directly conducted into Letal's body. She roared in pain again; Mark watched as she was lit up with sparks like a gigantic light bulb.

"Get away from it!" he shouted, but either Letal couldn't hear him or didn't listen to him. Her eyes blood red, she let her now white-hot claws slice into the mouse's body. It let out another squeak before finally giving up; its eyes rolled into the back of its head and closed. Letal stepped away, her body shaking.

The other boy ran into the arena with some sort of a potion bottle and sprayed it quickly on the ugly, half-burnt gashes that Letal's claws had left on his Pokémon. She watched it with shocked eyes, her breathing turning wheezy again while her body still shivered like she was freezing cold. The vapour rising from her body told a different story.

Mark looked worriedly at Letal, wondering whether he should recall her. She seemed to calm down a little bit as the Raichu's wounds closed in front of their eyes and the mouse Pokémon stood up with difficulty, coughed and shook its head.

"Here," the other boy said, throwing a pale yellow spray bottle to Mark. "Paralyz Heal," he added when Mark seemed puzzled. "Since Sparky is next up and it would be a bother for you to have to go all the way down and outside to get to the Pokémon Center, I've got a supply of items to heal all your Pokémon for the big battle."

Mark nodded and sprayed Letal's body with the Paralyz Heal spray. Her breathing quickly returned to more or less normal and her body stopped shaking.

The boy now handed him a potion bottle. "Hey," he suddenly said, "how about you just send out all your Pokémon that are hurt or tired, and I'll give them all the sprays they need? I think your Letal needs a bit of calming down, and you'd better handle that."

Mark nodded, agreeing especially with the last part, and sent out Dragonair and Sandslash (he assumed that Sandslash would need all the energy he could possibly have for the match against Sparky, even though he wasn't very worn-out after his brief appearance in battle). While the trainer busily sprayed them with various potions, Mark slowly reached out to touch the fine white fur on Letal's neck and stroked it. She seemed slightly startled at first, but appeared to like it soon enough and ended up closing her eyes and giving a sort of purring sound of appreciation. He sprayed her body with the potion as he continued to stroke her.

"Is she okay?" the trainer asked concernedly after a couple of minutes. "Your Dragonair and Sandslash should be in top state now."

Mark nodded and patted Letal's neck one more time before recalling all three of his Pokémon. "Do I just go up the stairs?"

The trainer nodded, and Mark smiled as he walked towards the final ladder.

"Hey," the boy suddenly called. Mark turned around again.

"You've got nice Pokémon," the trainer said. "You looked like an average kid with maybe a Meowth or something, but I was surprised when I saw you had a Letal, and even more when you had a Dragonair too. You must either be really lucky or really talented."

"I think it's just luck," Mark replied nervously, desperately hoping he would continue to be so lucky on his oncoming quest, and perhaps that the trainer might be right about the talent too.

The boy laughed. "Well, it's nice to have luck now. You'll need it."

Mark smiled faintly and walked up the ladder to Sparky's arena. He took a deep breath as he opened the final door between him and the Gym battle.

When he entered, he was showered with paper ribbons.

"Surprise!" Sparky shouted from another ladder near the door. He was holding a bucket of shredded, multicolored paper. After shaking it empty, Sparky threw the bucket carelessly to the floor, where it landed with a loud clatter, and jumped down to shake hands with Mark.

"What do you think?" the Gym leader asked with a grin. "If you liked my ribbons, you should wait for the cake. I can just tell it's going to be great."

Mark was kind of freaked out while still enjoying the attention. He just grinned back and looked around. In the middle of the battle arena stood a small table with four chairs around it and a particularly large and tasty-looking chocolate cake neatly placed in the middle. May and Alan stood by the table laying down plates and forks; Spirit sat in a corner watching them.

Sparky took Mark over to the table and all four of them sat down.

"Happy birthday again, Mark," said Alan, beaming. "And, uh, sorry if the cake is a little burnt; I left it a couple of minutes too long in the oven. And May put the ingredients in in the wrong order. I just hope it doesn't really matter."

Mark laughed as he saw May's beet-red face. Alan just rolled his eyes and elbowed her.

"Thanks, all of you," Mark said. "Except May, if she messed up the cake," he added as a joke. Her face only went even redder.

Sparky cleared his throat as he cut a large slice of cake and put it on Mark's plate.

"My father always used to say that there were two reasons you should make each and every one of your birthdays the best party you've ever had," he said gleefully while cutting a slice for Alan, May and finally himself. "One: It might always be your last birthday, and in fact that becomes likelier every year, so it's good always to assume it is. Two: It's well worth celebrating that you were wrong about it last year."

The kids glanced nervously at each other, all thinking the same thing: it was in fact unusually likely that it was his last birthday. Sparky either didn't notice or pretended not to.

"So well, cheers to Mark for not having dropped dead yet!" he said, raising his glass of milk. Mark laughed in spite of himself.

"Uh, cheers," May and Alan said doubtfully in unison, raising their own glasses.

Mark discovered to his delight that May hadn't messed up the cake, at least not too badly, and while they ate, Sparky questioned him about his journey so far, his Pokémon and his plans for the future. Mark, of course, carefully avoided having to mention anything about the search for the legendaries or that they were planning to wake up a homicidal dragon sleeping inside a nearby mountain the next day. Sparky ignored the plot holes.

"So," the Gym leader said after they had all finished eating, "how about battling now?"

Mark had nearly forgotten about the upcoming Gym battle by this time, but quickly regained his directions. "Uh, okay."

Sparky smiled and stood up. "You can go downstairs and battle my junior trainers in the meanwhile," he said to May. "But first we'll get this table out of the way."

They quickly moved the table and chairs aside. Alan offered to do the dishes and disappeared down to the kitchen. Sparky told May she could go and challenge the first junior trainer now, and she walked towards the staircase with her Ninetales after her.

Suddenly she turned around.

"Mark… good luck," she said and smiled awkwardly.

"Thanks," Mark replied and smiled back. May had almost disappeared down the stairs when he suddenly found himself opening his mouth.

"Wait," he called and May turned around again. "You… you can battle Sparky first if you want. You made me a birthday cake and everything…"

May walked a few steps back towards them, her face showing the astonishment of a person who would never have done the same. "Really?"

Mark nodded. "Yeah, you can. I'll just wait while you fight the junior trainers and watch when you battle Sparky."

He could literally see the familiar battle glint burst forth in May's eyes while her mouth broke into a wide grin.

"Thanks, Mark," she said. She opened her mouth again, paused for a split second, but then added, "Happy birthday again."

Mark smiled. How very much like her to start caring about his birthday when he let her battle first.

She ran back to the staircase and disappeared down it with Spirit.

"Was that nobility or just a clever trick to get a sneak peek at my Pokémon and strategies before your own battle?" Sparky asked with an even more highly amused-looking expression than usual after a short pause.

Mark blushed. "I'm not sure," he said truthfully.

"It's fine," Sparky whispered, leaning closer to him. "I always used to do that too. I journeyed with Nurse Joy, and always made her battle first while I watched. A bit evil of me never to let her turn the tables, but I couldn't resist."

Mark laughed hollowly. "It's not evil of me. She's probably thankful for any opportunity to prove she always wins through her skill alone and doesn't need any cheap tricks to do it."

Sparky smiled. "Truth to be told," he said, "I think we all have that in us when it comes to things we're good at. The only thing that varies is how much we have of it and how good we are at hiding it."

Mark laughed, but couldn't help thinking he had a point.

It wasn't long before May was back. Mark hadn't expected it to, either; three one-on-one battles weren't anything she would generally have a particularly hard time with.

"So well, here I am," she said and shrugged. "Are we going to battle now or what?"

"Yes, why not?" Sparky asked without waiting for an answer and walked right over to a rectangular box, outlined by red tiles, on the floor. May glanced quickly at Mark before positioning herself in the opposite box; Spirit stood beside her, blinking her ruby-red eyes. Mark leant against the wall right where he was at an approximately equal distance from each of the battlers, and imagined himself as a judge. He watched Sparky put up his silver shades and smile, grabbing a Pokéball from his belt.

"Battles in this Gym are generally six on six," he stated. "I hope that is okay with you?"

"The longer, the better," May replied, grinning as she reached for her Pokéball necklace and plucked one of the minimized balls from it.

"Manectric, I choose you!" Sparky called out. The shape of a dog was only beginning to materialize on the floor when May maximized her Pokéball and threw it out into the arena as well:

"Go, Raichu!"

Mark was a bit surprised as May's orange mouse Pokémon started to form. He had expected her to send out Pupitar, as he was of course a Ground-type. Then he suddenly realized that if he had battled Sparky first, he would have made the very same mistake as in Flora's Gym battle – to waste his best Pokémon at the very start. He blushed; the battle hadn't even started, but he was already benefiting from getting to watch May first.

"Raichu, Thunder Wave," May ordered calmly.

"Thunder Wave it right back," Sparky told Manectric.

The two Pokémon crouched down and charged up electricity; the blue and yellow dog-like Pokémon growled as sparks danced around its peculiar, pyramid-shaped mane while Raichu glared at Manectric and charged the yellow spots on his cheeks. May's Pokémon was a split second faster and sent a wave of electricity at Sparky's dog Pokémon. Manectric's muscles stiffened as it was hit and it lost its concentration momentarily, the sparks vanishing.

"Now use a Quick Attack," May commanded.

"Manectric, Crunch!" Sparky ordered.

With unnatural speed, Raichu leapt at the Manectric and tackled it with his body. The dog Pokémon barked and managed to seize Raichu's tail in its jaws before he could get away. A second later it had caught up and was tearing into the mouse's flesh with its teeth while Raichu moaned in pain.

"Seismic Toss!" May shouted, and Raichu clenched his teeth before swinging his tail into the ground and grabbing Manectric's body. Using the tail for extra support, the mouse Pokémon made for a high jump.

Up the two Pokémon soared, Manectric giving a quick yelp of surprise which Raichu immediately utilized. With an angry "Rai!", he threw Manectric headfirst into the floor, Raichu himself landing on his feet a second later.

The dog rose painfully up.

"Crunch again, Manectric," Sparky said after a brief pause.

"Dodge it, Raichu!" May quickly countered and smirked as the paralyzed Manectric made an attempt to run at her Pokémon.

But something was wrong. Raichu was frozen in place, and while he strained to move with despair in his eyes, Mark heard May mutter, "Oh, damn, stupid Static."

The dog Pokémon leapt on top of Raichu and gave him another nasty bite while May reached for a Pokéball. The mouse's body went limp.

"Raichu, return."

He was absorbed into the red beam of light while Manectric panted. Sparky looked at his Pokémon and frowned, but said nothing.

"Butterfree, do it!" May shouted in determination, throwing out a Pokéball. It popped open and the butterfly flew out of it, looking towards her opponent while flapping her wings lazily.

"Psychic to finish it off," May simply said, and Butterfree began to glow with a faint purple aura.

"Manectric, come back," Sparky said, recalling his Pokémon before the attack hit.

Butterfree looked unsurely back at May, who hissed, "Keep it charged!"

Sparky frowned slightly again as the Pokémon obeyed. He reached for another Pokéball.

"Ampharos, brace yourself for a Psychic attack."

The light from the ball materialized into an odd, yellow, bipedal sheep-like creature with flippers in place of arms. It cried out with a sort of wail before covering its head comically with its flippers.

"Release the Psychic attack, Butterfree!" May shouted, and the butterfly Pokémon's glow slowly took over Ampharos's body as well. The sheep whimpered as Butterfree attacked its mind, but a few seconds later the glow faded and Ampharos looked carefully past the flipper. Butterfree looked exhausted after having kept her concentration for so long. May frowned.

"Ampharos, Thunderbolt."

The red pearl-like orb at the end of Ampharos's striped tail sparkled with electricity. The sheep went quickly down on all fours, holding its tail in the air, and a moment later, a bolt of lightning shot from the orb and struck Butterfree. The butterfly cried out in pain and nearly crashed into the ground, but managed to pull herself up at the last moment. Her flight was getting a little jittery.

"Safeguard!" May ordered quickly. Butterfree started concentrating, emitting a slight white glow as she did so, and seemed to successfully avoid paralysis. Sparky stroked his goatee thoughtfully and paused while May grabbed the opportunity to issue the next attack:

"Sleep Powder!"

"Cotton Spore," Sparky countered calmly.

The still-glowing butterfly was faster. She fluttered to right above the sheep and flapped her wings powerfully, releasing a cloud of fine, green dust. However, just as she did so, the Ampharos crouched down on all fours and shook its body. From out beneath the fine yellow hairs sprouted sudden layers upon layers of white cottonlike wool, covering Ampharos almost completely. May mouthed a few swear words as she watched every speck of Sleep Powder get lost somewhere between hairs in the wool, unable to reach Ampharos's well-hidden nostrils.

"Thunderpunch," Sparky said suddenly, and without warning, the yellow shape of his Pokémon sprang out of the pile of cottonlike material, somehow clenching the end of its flipper into a fist while small sparks circled it. Butterfree, taken entirely by surprise, had no time to get away, and Ampharos's punch smacked her right in the side of her face. The bug crashed uncomfortably into the ground.

May's eyes spelled murder.

"Clever," she commented coldly.

Sparky just smiled. "Don't you think?"

May didn't answer and just picked the next Pokéball from her necklace. Mark couldn't help snickering to himself; now May had lost two of her Pokémon while Sparky had only lost one.

"I can be clever too," May said and smirked, throwing out her next Pokéball. "Go, Skarmory!"

Mark wasn't sure what she considered so clever about using Skarmory, but he was about to find out.

"Whirlwind that cotton right back at it."

The metallic bird let out a piercing cry, swooped down close to the pile of wool and then suddenly flapped his wings powerfully. The Cotton Spore drifted back towards the Pokémon it originally came from, still green-tinged with Sleep Powder. Ampharos attempted to run out of the way, but the wool was everywhere, making the sheep trip over it a few times before finally its eyelids gave way to the overwhelming urge to close and the Pokémon collapsed.

"Aha," Sparky said, nodding thoughtfully. "Very clever."

"Indeed," May agreed. "Now use Spikes while it can't hurt you," she instructed Skarmory. "And I want a lot of them."

Skarmory flew upwards above Ampharos and sent a rain of metallic feathers down onto the ground. Some of them hit Ampharos, cutting its skin a little, but most simply fell down on the ground, leaving their sharp edges ready to make things difficult for the upcoming Pokémon.

"And now, Drill Peck!"

Skarmory spun around in mid-air, diving down at the sleeping sheep Pokémon on the floor, but just then, its eyes popped open and widened in surprise at the approaching bird. Ampharos's body was almost immediately sparkling with electricity, and when Skarmory's sharp beak drilled into the sheep's side, the electricity pulsed into his body and caused him to screech in pain along with his opponent. The metallic vulture crashed nastily into the floor and didn't move.

"Looks like a double faint, eh?" Sparky said cheerfully, recalling his battered Pokémon. May nodded curtly and did the same.

The Gym leader put his hand into his pocket and presumably pressed a button on some sort of a key or something, and a rectangular section of the floor on his end of the arena started sinking down with a rumbling noise. Some steel feathers on the edges of the rectangle fell down onto the disappearing platform as it started to slide under the rest of the rubber-covered floor to reveal a basic Pokémon pool.

"Go, Lanturn!"

Sparky threw a ball towards the pool, and it quickly burst open to reveal a blue anglerfish Pokémon in a flash of light. It dove into the pool, seemingly happy about the exercise, but then stuck its head up out of the water again to be able to see the opponent it was about to face. The yellow bait on its natural fishing rod flashed.

May nodded thoughtfully to herself and picked a Pokéball. "Go, Lapras!"

The sea turtle-like Pokémon was sent out on the opposite end of the pool. Mark wasn't sure what she was thinking there; after all, it would be even easier to harm Lapras since it was in the water than to harm a Pokémon on the floor. But then again, he suddenly realized, the other two Pokémon she had left were both weak to Water.

"Body Slam!" May ordered quickly, and Lapras threw herself at her opponent with a cry. The Lanturn released a jolt of electricity in surprise, shocking Lapras just before she crushed the fish against the wall of the pool with her body.

"Confuse Ray, Lanturn."

"Lapras," May shouted, thinking quickly, "freeze the water with an Ice Beam."

Small icicles formed in the turtle's mouth as she craned her head backwards, but meanwhile Lanturn swam up to the surface of the water and let its light bulb glow brightly. The wispy light then curiously detached itself from Lanturn and floated lazily in the air, causing Lapras to watch it curiously.

"Lapras!" May warned, and the Pokémon blinked, suddenly realizing what she was doing and then firing the beam of cold from her mouth. Starting at the spot she was aiming at in the middle of the pool, the water rapidly turned into a sheet of cracking ice. Lanturn, knowing better than being trapped at the bottom inside the ice where it wouldn't be able to do anything at all, stayed at the surface as Lapras trapped both the anglerfish and herself in place.

"Ice Beam the ceiling, Lapras!"

Mark looked at May in puzzlement at this command, but her expression was inscrutable. While Lanturn, trapped in the layer of ice, attempted to gain a little more room to move by letting its light bulb emit small, hot sparks, Lapras fired another beam of ice at the ceiling above the pool.

There were strange cracking sounds.

Sparky looked worriedly upwards just as shards of frozen rubber rained down onto the two immobile Pokémon. Lapras could bend her head down and had a protective shell, not to mention thick skin, but Lanturn had a frail build and was stuck with its head sticking out of the ice and could only close its eyes before being hit and cut by the sharp edges.

"Lanturn, Thunder," Sparky said as the last bits of the ceiling hit the iced pool.

Lapras whimpered as the battered Lanturn's glowing bait turned white in preparation for the attack. Attempting desperately to wring herself loose from the ice, she turned her head towards May with shining, fearful eyes that begged to be recalled.

"Ice Beam," May ordered emotionlessly. "Now, before it hits you."

"Lanturn, maybe you should…" Sparky began, but the fish Pokémon was not at all planning to let the Pokémon that had pulled that devilish ceiling Ice Beam trick get off so easy.

Lightning flashed in the room. Lapras's scream of pain was barely audible through the deafening roar of thunder.

"Come back, Lapras," May said emptily, recalling the limp turtle. Spirit looked up at her trainer, but the glance was not returned.

"Pupitar, finish it off with an Earthquake."

She threw the next Pokéball, which opened in mid-air and released the blue cocoon-like creature. He spun around in the air as soon as he had gained material form and threw himself down at the floor. Ripples formed in its surface, travelling across the ice and hitting the now-weak Lanturn. It unwillingly released a flurry of electric sparks, but then closed its eyes and let itself slip into unconsciousness.

"There," Mark heard May mutter as Sparky recalled his Pokémon. He reached into his pocket again to close the pool.

"Electabuzz, do it!" Sparky said, tossing a new ball into the arena. The light from it revealed a bipedal tigerlike creature with black stripes shaped into a bolt of lightning on its belly. Sparks flew from the small antennae on its head as it emitted an electrical cry. Mark suddenly realized that it was because Electabuzz was standing on Skarmory's Spikes. It looked down at the floor, trying to find a spot to place its feet.

"Earthquake again," May just said.

"Ice Punch," Sparky ordered. "And try to evade the attack."

Pupitar bounced up into the air somehow (Mark had no idea how, considering it had no legs to kick off with) and then smashed himself into the floor, but meanwhile Electabuzz was charging towards him while delicately avoiding the steel feathers covering the floor, and at just the right moment, it leapt into the air, roared as icy blue energy circled its fist, and then gave Pupitar a powerful punch. Small needles of ice flew in all directions and melted quickly on the floor.

"Pupitar, use a Rock Tomb," May said quickly.

Pupitar closed his eyes, and all of a sudden, the floor around Electabuzz seemed to explode, burying the Pokémon under large chunks of concrete. It didn't take the Electabuzz long to blast the rocks aside with its powerful arms, but in doing so, it lost a few precious seconds just as May ordered Pupitar to try another Earthquake. As the floor rippled under its feet, the Electric-type lost its balance, and fell back to the ground with sparks flying around it.

Electabuzz opened its eyes again, growled at Pupitar and crawled weakly to its feet, looking about to faint at any moment. May watched it with a triumphant glance in her eyes, already mentally celebrating that she was about to even the game.

Suddenly, the Electric-type sprang up with a loud roar. Both of its fists icy blue, Electabuzz threw itself at Pupitar and smashed into the pupa, sending both Pokémon flying backwards.

Electabuzz took a few heavy tumbles on the ground. Pupitar rolled in a large semicircle with frost damage in two spots on its head.

Pupitar's eyes opened, but Electabuzz's did not.

"Return," Sparky said, a red beam from one of his Pokéballs absorbing the tigerlike creature. May smirked as Pupitar managed (again, in some magical way) to raise himself back to balancing on his narrow end.

Sparky looked at Pupitar and then pulled out another Pokéball.

"Electrode, finish it."

The Pokémon he sent out looked like a huge, upside-down Pokéball with eyes and a mischievous grin. Sparky hesitated for a second before giving it an order:

"Explosion."

At bizarre speed, the rounded Pokémon rolled straight at Pupitar. There was a fiery explosion in the middle of the arena and Mark had to shield his eyes for a second, but when the smoke dissolved, both Pokémon lay immobile on the floor.

"Return, Pupitar."

"Come back, Electrode."

May and Sparky looked at each other.

"Down to our last Pokémon, then," Sparky said with a smile. "I love it when battles are exciting."

May's expression stayed cold and focused. She said nothing.

"Go, Magneton."

Sparky sent out what looked like three of the Pokémon that the first junior trainer had owned stuck together. It levitated in mid-air in a similar fashion to the Magnemite.

May grinned. "Spirit, go!"

The Ninetales slowly walked forward into the arena.

"Thunder Wave, Magneton."

"Spirit, assume the weak spirit form."

While the metallic magnet Pokémon started charging up electricity, Spirit's eyes glowed red. Mark watched in astonishment as her form turned ghostly white and semi-transparent. When Magneton released a wave of electricity, it passed through Spirit without harming her. She walked calmly towards Magneton.

Sparky stroked his chin. "Interesting."

"Spirit, Flamethrower," May ordered. Spirit faded back into her physical form and breathed out a plume of flames that torched the Magneton's metallic body. It buzzed a little and started to charge electricity, but before it managed to hit, Spirit was back in her ghostly, insubstantial form.

"Rain Dance," Sparky said. Magneton started turning slowly in mid-air, letting out a soft electric hum. Wispy vapour started forming near the ceiling, quickly spreading and becoming a thick layer of dark clouds. Within seconds, the two Pokémon were in a local rainstorm.

May frowned, most likely realizing that this would wreck her plans of defeating Magneton with Fire attacks.

"Stay in spirit form," she told her Pokémon.

Sparky nodded thoughtfully. "Magneton, see if a Sonicboom will help against that."

The magnetic Pokémon sent a blast of compressed sound waves at the ghostly Ninetales. Hearing a horrible sound that no one else could, Spirit laid her ears back, staggering backwards a little, but soon recovered and shook her head.

May looked a little worried that Sparky had caught on so soon. "Spirit, assume the strong spirit form," she finally ordered.

Spirit's eyes glowed again, but this time she faded completely away, becoming entirely invisible.

"I don't assume I can ask if there is any way to hit her like this, can I?" Sparky asked amusedly after a short pause.

"No, you can't," May said shortly.

"How about whether she can do anything to Magneton like this?"

"Not that either."

Sparky paused. "Well, then I'll wait and see, I guess."

He waited. May waited too.

"All right, fine," Sparky finally said and chuckled. "Use Lock-On and see if you can locate her."

The three staring eyes on Magneton's bodies glowed blue as the Pokémon concentrated…

"She's not here," Magneton said, sounding about as puzzled as an electronic voice can sound. "She's not in the room."

Sparky raised an eyebrow. "You know that any Pokémon that leaves the arena has by official rules lost the…"

"She hasn't left the arena!" May snapped. "Spirit, use Curse!"

The Ninetales reappeared in physical form at exactly the location she had been at before, like she had never moved at all, and yet again, her eyes glowed a hellish red.

"Thunderbolt!" Sparky shouted immediately.

Spirit stretched her head upwards while letting out a long howl. Devilish whispers seemed to mix in with the terrible sound, her eyes glowing more intensely with every passing second – and then suddenly both Pokémon burst into black flames, letting out cries of pain.

Mark stared as Spirit's eyes returned to normal. No sooner had she shaken her head weakly than Magneton fired a bolt of electricity through the heavy rain.

Spirit was thrown backwards with a yelp and landed harshly on the floor nearby. Meanwhile, Magneton seemed to be in great pain, and Mark realized why when he noticed the black flames that circled its bodies. Nervous sparks flew around it as it seemed to be struggling to keep its balance.

A clatter was heard through the sound of the pouring rain as the Electric Pokémon fell fainted to the floor.

May clenched her fist as Sparky recalled his Pokémon. Everybody stared at the fallen Spirit, all wondering the same thing: would she get up?

Spirit raised her head slowly and blinked a few times with difficulty.

"Come on," May mouthed.

The rain-soaked Ninetales finally managed to rise shakily to her feet and look at Sparky with a victorious smile.

"I knew you could do it!" May shouted in triumph. "Great job, Spirit! Yes!"

Sparky just smiled as the rain in the arena subsided and the clouds slowly started to dissolve into the air. When it was sufficiently dry, he walked across the arena, pulling a small silver badge out of his pocket.

"You have an… _interesting_ Ninetales," he commented.

May grinned. "You'd never imagine."

"So," Sparky said, turning to Mark, "I think my Pokémon would like a nice rest with Nurse Joy now. You don't mind waiting a bit longer, do you?"

* * *

"So, how does this spirit form thing work?"

While Joy was tending to Sparky's Pokémon, the kids and the Gym leader sat in the Pokémon Center waiting room and chatted. It was Mark who first dared to ask May about Spirit's unusual battling abilities, although he strongly suspected Sparky had been wondering too. Alan, of course, had missed the battle, and looked curiously at May.

She was still wearing a triumphant expression, petting her Ninetales with one hand and reaching every now and then for a cookie from a bowl on the table (which Joy had placed there earlier) with the other.

"Well," May explained through her cookie, "there are two types of it. In the weak spirit form, she is insubstantial so she can't be hit by any physical attacks, fire, water, electricity or anything. Only stuff like Hypnosis or Sonicboom that don't rely on attacking her body directly can affect her in that form. Then there's the strong spirit form, in which she stops existing except on a spiritual plane, and then she can't be hurt at all. She can hear me telepathically or something when I give her orders in that form, I think."

Alan blinked. "That sounds pretty invincible."

"Well, it applies both ways," May added, shrugging. "She has to turn back to physical form to be able to attack, and while in spirit form the opponent could be powering itself up or something, so it's not always a good idea. It takes skill to know when to…"

A soft ding was heard and they all looked up. The door to the treatment room opened, and Nurse Joy stepped out.

"Your Pokémon should be ready to get themselves beaten to a pulp by a little kid for the second time in one day," she said sarcastically to Sparky, rolling her eyes a little.

"I love you too, Joy," he giggled as he picked up the Pokéballs she handed to him on a tray and reattached them to his belt. "So, Mark, should we battle now?"

"Uh, okay," Mark replied nervously, standing up. "You guys going to watch?"

Alan looked at May and she shrugged. He ended up pulling her out of the chair. Mark thought he could see him elbow May for the umpteenth time as they walked to the door. Crossing over to the Gym building and walking up the staircases didn't take long, and Mark hardly noticed where he was going while he was lost in trying to remember May's strategies. Before he knew it, he was facing Sparky on the battle arena.

"Six on six again," Sparky said. "Go, Manectric!"

As the doglike Pokémon materialized, Mark's hand automatically slipped to Sandslash's Pokéball, but he realized what he was doing before he sent it out.

"Don't make the same mistake as against Flora," he muttered to himself. "Right."

He shrugged. If it worked for May, it might work for him.

"Go, Jolteon!" he shouted as he threw the Pokéball.

"Manectric, Thunder Wave," Sparky ordered as Jolteon appeared on the floor.

"Thu… no, Pin Missile!" Mark blurted out, suddenly gripped by the nervousness he tended to feel in battle. He could see May shaking her head by the side wall and Alan elbowing her again.

Jolteon was faster. Crouching down, he fired a flurry of needles towards Manectric, causing it to stagger back as it was stricken by the hundreds of small pins.

"Try to dodge!" Mark shouted as he watched Manectric start to charge. A wave of electricity shot at Jolteon, but he leapt into the air. The wave struck one of his back legs and he cried out, but landed fairly safely on the floor.

"Return!" Mark said quickly.

"Manectric, Crunch."

Jolteon closed his eyes as Manectric dashed towards him. A pink aura circled his body. As Manectric bared its fangs, Jolteon charged towards it as well as he could (he had a slight limp due to his paralyzed leg) and rammed it with a full-body tackle. Manectric yelped as it was thrown backwards, but stood up, shook its head and leapt at Jolteon, sinking its fangs into the smaller Pokémon's side. Jolteon cried out and bit Manectric right back.

"Uh, Sand Attack!" Mark ordered.

Jolteon leapt a short distance away from Manectric and kicked previously nonexistent sand into the dog's eyes. Manectric growled, startled, and attempted to get rid of the sand by shaking its head, giving Jolteon an opportunity to strike again.

"Another Return!"

"Manectric, Quick Attack."

Jolteon concentrated on his trust in Mark, gathering the same pink energy as before, but Manectric meanwhile sprang up at great speed to try to tackle Jolteon. Thanks to the sand in its eyes, however, it missed him by an inch and crashed on the ground, giving Jolteon a good opportunity to tackle it. It growled in pain.

Manectric got to its feet and, without Sparky's command, released a powerful blast of electricity at Jolteon. Mark was sure he was going to faint now, but to his surprise, Jolteon appeared unharmed.

_This is strange… I feel better than before…_

Manectric looked surprised too. Mark turned to May, puzzled.

"Volt Absorb," she called. "Jolteon's ability. Electricity heals him."

"Oh," Mark replied, dumbfounded. He had never known that, except perhaps for a few minutes while he read it in a textbook. Maybe that had been why the electricity wouldn't affect Dan's Lanturn.

"Manectric, Crunch."

The dog attacked Jolteon again and managed to pin him down, locking its jaws around his body, but he responded with a quick Pin Missile right into its face.

"Manectric, return," Sparky said as his Pokémon roared and staggered backwards. It was recalled into the safety of the Pokéball as he reached for his pocket with the other hand.

The Water Pokémon pool opened in the same manner as it had before, and Sparky sent out the same anglerfish which, Mark made a mental note, it was not a good idea to attack with Electric attacks.

"Jolteon, Thunder Wave!" Mark shouted, remembering that this had nonetheless worked on Dan's Lanturn.

"Confuse Ray, Lanturn."

Jolteon was faster again, despite the bleeding gash on his side. He crouched down and sent a wave of lightning at the fish in the pool, which retaliated by sending the same kind of wispy light as it had used on Lapras floating through the air at Jolteon. He watched it curiously.

"Don't let it distract you!" Mark yelled in frustration.

"Hydro Pump," Sparky ordered calmly.

Lanturn swam to the surface and sprayed a powerful blast of water from its mouth. Jolteon yelped as it bombarded him, blasting him a few meters backwards. He weakly stood up and angrily responded with a Pin Missile (which admittedly did not hurt Lanturn very much because it had dived underwater again) until he was again distracted by the playful light. Mark gritted his teeth as Jolteon started to sway on his feet, seemingly hypnotized.

"Jolteon! Keep your mind on the battle!"

"Another Hydro Pump, Lanturn."

Just as Jolteon turned around, he was blasted with a second Hydro Pump. He screamed as he was blasted halfway to the wall and did not stand up again afterwards.

"Return, Jolteon," Mark said disappointedly as the Confuse Ray light faded away. He pondered for a few seconds before picking the next Pokémon to use:

"Dragonair, do it!"

Sparky watched with interest as the slender snakelike dragon materialized out of the Pokéball Mark threw out. Dragonair flew into the air and looked down at Lanturn.

"Lanturn, use an Ice Beam."

_Oh, crap,_ Mark thought.

"Quick, Agility! Dodge it!"

Lanturn's paralysis slowed it down, and thanks to that combined with Dragonair's sudden zooming to the other end of the room, the Ice Beam missed by a long shot.

"Great, Dragonair," Mark cheered. "Use Slam."

"Thunder Wave."

While Dragonair dived at great speed, Lanturn was charging up electricity. Just as the dragon smashed the dark blue pearls on his tail into the anglerfish's head, Lanturn pumped paralyzing electricity into his whole body. Dragonair screamed, retreating into the air.

"Now use another Ice Beam."

This time, Dragonair couldn't move out of the way soon enough, and was stricken by a beam of ice from the anglerfish. The dragon dropped to the ground.

Then, curiously, he closed his eyes and started to focus. Mark stared in horror as Dragonair's skin seemed to rip apart on his head, but then he realized what was happening – Dragonair was just shedding his old skin.

The dragon slithered along the floor as quickly as he could, letting his old scales scrape against the rubbery floor enough to start to tear off. And indeed, the more of his body he managed to pull out of the old skin, the faster he seemed to become.

"Yet another Ice Beam, Lanturn," Sparky said and Lanturn aimed, but just before it fired the attack, Dragonair shot upwards in a shiny new body, leaving his old skin lying useless on the floor. The beam of ice crystals covered the skin with frost.

"Twister!" Mark yelled. Dragonair started spinning fast, helped by the power of the Agility, and formed a whirlwind of green flames. Lanturn attempted to swim into a corner of the pool as the Twister started to suck up the water, but had no arms to hold on to the bank and was thus pulled inevitably towards the draconic whirlwind.

Lanturn screamed as it was tossed around in the tornado of dragon flames, but then the whirlwind finally dissolved and the water rained back down. Lanturn landed helplessly on the floor beside the pool.

"Return, Lanturn," Sparky said as the beam of the Pokéball absorbed the fish. Mark couldn't believe he was actually – somewhat – about to win the battle now.

"Ampharos, go," the Gym leader said after a short pause. He sent out the electric sheep which Mark remembered from earlier only from the Cotton Spore trick.

"Okay, um…" He paused. "Try another Twister?"

"Light Screen, Ampharos," Sparky ordered.

As Dragonair tried to whip up a whirlwind again, Ampharos concentrated and created a translucent pink bubble around itself.

"Now, Cotton Spore!" Sparky said quickly as the Twister started forming. Again, fluffy wool sprouted on the sheep Pokémon, but this time, it shook itself to send the cottonlike material out of the Light Screen. It was sucked into the whirlwind, but Ampharos itself was safe behind the protective shield and hardly affected at all.

What happened now was a very interesting development that Mark had not expected at all. As Dragonair realized this wasn't doing any good and stopped powering the Twister, the room became filled with floating bits of the Cotton Spore that the Twister had torn up.

"Dragonair, try a Slam now," Mark said unsurely, figuring that at the very least he'd have to do something physical to get through the Light Screen. The dragon faithfully dived, but the shreds of wool everywhere were slowing him down.

"Mega Punch," Sparky simply said.

Dragonair attempted to smash his tail into his opponent, but Mark could just barely see him miss. Then Ampharos punched Dragonair hard with its curled flipper, and Mark miserably watched his dragon Pokémon collapse on the ground.

"Return," he muttered as Dragonair disappeared into the Pokéball he held out.

He took a deep breath (taking care not to inhale any of the Cotton Spore, of course). What did he have left again? Letal, Charizard, Scyther and Sandslash. Wouldn't it just be best to go for it now?

"Sandslash, go!" he shouted, hurling forward a Pokéball. The pangolin Pokémon appeared, taking in the situation carefully.

"Earthquake, quickly," Mark ordered.

Sandslash leapt up, turned around in mid-air so that he faced downwards, and then smashed into the ground with his forepaws. Ripples spread through the floor; Mark could hear Ampharos' wail of pain, even though it was hard to see anything when both the floating wool and the Light Screen blocked his vision.

"Ampharos, Fire Punch," Sparky commanded. Mark watched the pink bubble disappear as the sheep started making its way towards Sandslash. The Cotton Spore was slowly but surely settling on the ground, but there was still a great deal of it getting in the Pokémon's way.

"Sandslash, try to use another Earthquake!"

Sandslash jumped into the air again, but at the same time, Ampharos jumped. Sandslash was hit by a fiery punch in his vulnerable underbelly and flailed around a bit before slashing powerfully across Ampharos's body. The sheep cried out, momentarily distracted as Sandslash landed on the floor and produced an Earthquake – not quite as powerful as the earlier one, but it was enough. Ampharos flailed around as it was shaken by the Earthquake shockwaves, the air around it sparkling and lighting a few hairs of wool briefly on fire, and then fell down.

"Ampharos, return."

Sparky waited a little bit for the last strands of cotton to sink to the ground while Mark considered the situation. Sandslash might be able to take out one or two more Pokémon with his type advantage, and even after that, he had three of his Pokémon left. Admittedly, two of them had a weakness to electricity, but this was still not a bad situation. His heart thumped.

"Go, Electabuzz."

Sparky threw a Pokéball and it popped open to release the bipedal tigerlike thing from before. It growled at Sandslash, who looked back at it calmly.

"Okay, Sandslash, just keep using Earthquake," Mark said, trying to keep himself together. "It's really your best bet to keep using it for as long as you can."

"Electabuzz, hit it with an Ice Punch."

The Electric Pokémon dashed forward, but it didn't manage to reach Sandslash before he smashed his paws into the ground yet again and sent a flurry of ripples around the floor. Electabuzz tripped, releasing some accidental sparks, but then rose up, shook its head and jumped at the pangolin with icicles circling its fist.

"Slash!" Mark screamed, and Sandslash heartily agreed. The pangolin slashed with two claws right across Electabuzz's body and then, at amazing speed, curled himself into a tight ball before the Electric-type struck him with the punch.

Sandslash bounced like a ball from the rubber floor, rolling all the way up to the wall, but there he uncurled and was still conscious. Electabuzz, however, looked exhausted.

"Just one more Quick Attack, old Buzzy," Sparky encouraged his Pokémon. "Then you get to rest."

Electabuzz took a deep breath and then zoomed at Sandslash at incredible speed. The pangolin had no time to attempt to dodge it, and was tackled into the wall.

"Electabuzz, return," Sparky said calmly, absorbing the Pokémon into the Pokéball.

Mark looked at Sandslash. He had been knocked out.

"Sandslash, come back," he sighed and recalled the pangolin. Sparky had two Pokémon left and he had three. He was still a little better off.

"Go, Electrode," Sparky said, sending out his ball-like Pokémon.

"Letal, go!" Mark shouted and threw out his Pokéball.

He took a deep breath as Letal materialized on the floor. "Okay, Letal, try to hypnotize it. It's very important."

"Electrode, Thunder Wave!"

The ball Pokémon charged up electricity in its body at remarkable speed and released a wave of sparks straight at Letal. She was hit by it, but strained valiantly against the paralysis and stared hypnotically at Electrode, waving her tail softly from left to right. Mark's expression brightened as the ball's small pupils followed the tail and its eyelids started to sink.

"Oh, snap out of it," Sparky said and rolled his eyes, but his Pokémon was too fascinated by Letal's tail to notice that he was talking and slowly it fell into a deep sleep.

"Great, Letal," Mark cheered. "Now, uh…"

He frantically tried to remember what attacks Letal knew. "Headbutt!" he quickly realized.

Letal growled and charged towards the Electrode. Halfway there, she nearly tripped when one of her legs stiffened in mid-step, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep going. She had managed to gather pretty good speed by the time she lowered her head and smashed it into Electrode, sending it rolling backwards to the wall. She did not stop here, however; she followed it and proceeded to extend her claws and start to scrape them madly across Electrode's hard surface. Only after she had been doing that for a few seconds did the ball Pokémon wake up.

"Finally," Sparky said with another roll of his eyes. "Thunderbolt."

The Electrode released a jolt of electricity into Letal's body. She cried out in pain, jumping slightly away, but then she had a very nasty idea and stabbed her claws into Electrode's eye.

"Ouch," Sparky commented as Electrode let out a scream of pain. Mark was half-expecting blood to come gushing out and averted his eyes, but then remembered that Electrode had no blood.

"Electrode, return," Sparky said. "Don't your Pokémon have any manners?" he added to Mark as the Pokémon was absorbed back into its ball, sounding way too light-hearted to be taken seriously.

Mark just shook his head. Why did somebody keep getting stabbed in the eye in his battles? He thought he could remember Gyarados getting stabbed both by Moltres' beak way back in the Cleanwater City Gym and by a Razor Leaf in the Green Town Gym.

"Go, Magneton."

Mark looked up at the Pokémon that had faced Spirit earlier. He suddenly realized that this was Sparky's last Pokémon. His heart beat faster: he had three Pokémon left while Sparky only had one!

"Okay, Letal, try to hypnotize it."

"Magneton, Thunderbolt."

Letal attempted the same trick she had used on Electrode, but the magnetic Pokémon seemed unaffected as sparks flew between its magnets. A bolt of lightning flew towards Letal and hit her squarely in the chest. She staggered backwards and then decided to take matters into her own paws: she leapt straight at Magneton and attempted to tackle it down to the ground. To her surprise, it bounced right back up to where it had been before.

"Thunderbolt again."

Letal growled and tackled it in the air again, but the Magneton gave her another electric shock and she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"Return," Mark muttered, letting the red beam of the Pokéball take her in again. "Well, Charizard, show him what you can do."

He threw out the next ball. It opened in the air and released his first Pokémon, who stretched his wings and flew up to hover close to the ceiling.

"Rain Dance," Sparky ordered quickly.

"Flamethrower!" Mark shouted.

Charizard was faster. With a mighty roar, he inhaled deeply and breathed a blast of flames downwards at Magneton. It buzzed as it was scorched by the flames, but retaliated right back by doing the same kind of awkward magnet-dance in mid-air as it had in May's battle. Again, clouds gathered near the ceiling and started to rain. Charizard winced, looking worriedly at his tail flame.

Now Mark was getting a little nervous again. "Charizard, smack it with your tail!"

"Thunder, Magneton."

Charizard dived down, raising his flaming tail up and then smashing it into Magneton with all his might. The magnet Pokémon was thrown backwards and now had a nasty scorch mark on one of its bodies, but suddenly it pointed all of its magnets at Charizard and a bolt of lightning from the clouds above struck the dragon, who was already weakened by the rain, before he could even attempt to defend himself.

Charizard roared in pain, struggling to keep himself airborne. Sparky quickly gave another command:

"Sonicboom!"

Mark could see the raindrops swaying in the direction of the sound waves that Magneton started emitting. Wide-eyed, he watched Charizard, just recovering from the Thunder, attempt to cover his ears, roar and then finally crash on the ground.

"Charizard, return."

Mark looked at Magneton. It was hurt, and acted it, too; it was sending off unintentional sparks every now and then and teetering slightly in the air.

"Scyther, finish it!"

As soon as Scyther started to materialize from the Pokéball, Mark had a feeling something was wrong. But he didn't realize what it was until he saw that Scyther wasn't steady on his feet.

"Oh dear," Sparky said with an amused grin, voicing exactly Mark's thoughts. "He's still under the influence."

"I'm fine," Scyther mumbled. "Really…"

He made a respectable attempt to run towards Magneton and slash it, but missed it by a couple of feet.

Sparky shook his head. "Thunderbolt."

It only took one bolt of lightning from Magneton's magnets to make Scyther's eyes roll backwards into his head and his body crumple uselessly down.

Mark stared down in embarrassment as he held out Scyther's Pokéball and let him be absorbed by the beam. How could he have forgotten that Scyther had been suspended inside a Pokéball ever since yesterday evening, obviously keeping his physical state completely static?

Sparky walked up to him while the rain started to subside and shook Mark's hand.

"Good game," he said cheerfully.

Mark suddenly realized as Sparky let go off his hand that a small object was left in it. He stared at his palm in astonishment to see a shiny silver badge with a bolt of lightning engraved on it.

"I… didn't win," he just said.

Sparky smiled. "I was the one who served him the alcohol."

"I wouldn't have won anyway!" Mark said in frustration, contrary to his optimism in the battle itself. "What do you think a Scyther can do to a Steel Pokémon?"

"Oh, come on, it's your birthday after all," Sparky said and winked. "Keep it. You'd win later anyway."

Mark still stared at the badge, but then closed his fist around it and smiled. While part of him wanted to earn the badge fairly, the other part was glad he didn't have to repeat that.

"Thanks, Sparky."

"You're welcome," the Gym leader said with a smile and shook his hand again. "Now, let's get your Pokémon to Joy. We might be able to bribe her for some more cookies."

As they all headed down the staircase and Alan congratulated him on winning, Mark's thoughts wandered to the task of tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Note:** No, it is _not_ a mistake that Spirit's Curse worked that way. The additional powers that Entei gave her are Ghost powers, and among them is that she counts as a Ghost when she uses Curse.


	34. Thunderyu

**Chapter 33: Thunderyu**

Mark woke up feeling sick; he wasn't quite sure why for the first few seconds, but it quickly sank in: he would be battling a legendary Pokémon today, and as much as he'd have liked to think otherwise, he found it highly unlikely that he would succeed in weakening and catching it.

Thunderyu.

He sighed and sat up on the bed. The day before, he had been feeling fairly confident, but of course, that had been his birthday. Now he was just a random twelve-year-old who was completely rubbish at battling, about to stupidly confront a highly dangerous creature that was most likely capable of defeating all his Pokémon in one hit.

_I'm not that rubbish anymore,_ he thought decisively. _I have five Gym badges, my Pokémon are great and… well, May is with me. And Alan. We'll be fine…_

Still not at all convinced, he stood up, quietly dressed and then wondered what to do next.

"Chaletwo?" he asked the air nervously.

_"Yes?"_ said the smooth telepathic voice. Mark was relieved to hear no traces of the previous day's grumpiness.

"How are we going to do this?"

_"Well,"_ Chaletwo said after a moment's pause, _"it's best that you three all send out six Pokémon each, I wake him up, we wait for him to break out since that will tire him a little, and then you just attack… I guess."_

Mark was a little unnerved – while Chaletwo was no longer upset, he had a clear hint of nervousness to his voice. He tried to convince himself that that was to be expected, but somehow he had always trusted in Chaletwo as the calm voice of reason throughout this quest, and now he wasn't sure anymore.

"So…" he began, "when are we going to do it?"

_"As soon as possible,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Are your friends awake?"_

Mark laughed. "Wouldn't you know it better than me? You're the psychic."

_"What do you think I am, omnipotent?"_ Chaletwo replied, suddenly annoyed. _"Non-psychics have such faint psychic signals that unless you previously know what location to concentrate on as I'm doing for you, you can't read their minds or communicate telepathically with them. Enjoy your privacy."_

"Oh, right," Mark said quickly to avoid arguing. "I didn't know."

_"Don't waste any time. Go find them."_

Mark stood up and walked out of his room, crossing the yellow-tiled corridor to knock on May's door. To his surprise, it was not May who opened it a few seconds later, but Alan.

"Morning, Mark," Alan said. "We couldn't sleep so we've been keeping each other company. So um… are we going now?"

"Chaletwo said so," Mark just replied.

Alan opened the door a little more. Mark could see May and Spirit both lying on the bed, the former absent-mindedly stroking the latter's fur. Looking at the boys, May stood up, followed by her Pokémon.

"All right," she just said as she came towards the door with Spirit trotting behind her. "Let's go."

They walked silently down the stairs at the end of the corridor and out of the Gym. It was still rather dark outside, although the eastern sky was lighting up; of course, the looming thunderclouds above may have made it seem darker than it really was. The west-facing mountains were shrouded in foreboding shadow that stretched on along the ground below. To approach them gave an eerie sensation of dread. Mark shivered.

_"Okay,"_ came Chaletwo's voice suddenly, _"can you all hear me?"_

The kids stopped abruptly and each muttered some words of confirmation.

_"Good. Now… As I said yesterday, Thunderyu will most likely break out into Thunderclap Cave, so you need to be ready and facing the cave exit. This location is just fine. But try to spread yourselves out a little; there won't be room for all your Pokémon like this."_

May stayed where they were, but the boys each walked a little away from her in either direction.

_"Still hear me? Okay. Release all your Pokémon."_

Mark took a deep breath. "Go! Charizard, Jolteon, Sandslash, Dragonair, Scyther, Letal!" he shouted as he hurled all of his Pokéballs forward. One by one they opened and released his Pokémon. May and Alan were both doing the same.

_"Right,"_ Chaletwo's voice said. _"Pokémon, you all hear me too, right? Okay. Great. So."_

He gave a telepathic sigh before continuing. _"Okay. You all know what we're doing now, I hope? This is the first of many very difficult battles against legendaries that you will have to fight, this one in particular against Thunderyu who is a dragon with control over electricity, as I hope you know._

_"In a moment, I will use my powers to wake him up. He is located in a hidden, closed chamber inside this mountain. When he has been woken up, he will most likely break through the most cracked wall and thus into Thunderclap Cave, whose entrance you may be able to spot here in front of us. When I say 'us', I am referring to Mark, of course, as I'm connected to his visual cortex. Which reminds me, Mark – don't ever look away from Thunderyu, because I want to be able to see what he's doing, all right?_

_"Well, once Thunderyu has emerged, you will have to show some independent thinking, all of you Pokémon. Your trainers can't command six Pokémon at the same time. Just do your best, and of course, if the trainers have an idea of a strategy, it would be a good idea to listen to them because chances are they have a better overview of what's happening than you do._

_"A word of warning: Thunderyu is at least twice as powerful as anything you've ever battled before, and that's optimistic. He also has no idea what the Agreement is and wouldn't follow it if he did, so if you're really getting in his way, he's not going to be deliberately dampening his attacks to be nonfatal. The only hope we have of winning lies in numbers, so don't even think about rushing out there alone. You who can fly, it would be a good idea to get a little closer to the entrance to the cave before everything begins._

_"Now… any questions?"_

The Pokémon looked nervously at one another. A couple of seconds' pause passed before May's Butterfree dared to speak:

"What about you?"

_"Me?"_ Chaletwo asked, seemingly taken aback by the question.

"Yes, will you be fighting with us?"

_"Of course not,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Nobody must see me."_

"But…"

_"I have better things to do with the little power I have left, anyway,"_ Chaletwo interrupted. _"It's not possible, okay?"_

Butterfree didn't say anything.

"Okay," May suddenly started. "We'd better think this through. Butterfree, you should try to put it to sleep with Sleep Powder. Pupitar, you can attack it with rocks – Thunderyu can fly, right? – and maybe try to knock it down to the ground where you can attack it with Earthquake, okay? Lapras, you…"

"I will not battle for you," the turtle Pokémon said quietly in a shaky voice, only barely audible from where Mark was. Lapras's eyes were filled with tears.

"What the hell do you mean, you won't battle for me?" May asked angrily, raising her voice.

"I mean I'm not going to battle for you," Lapras repeated. She took a few deep breaths and swallowed. "I hate you. I hate your insensitivity, your lack of concern for our wellbeing and your shallow, mindless love for this… all this fighting and…" She had to swallow again before she could continue. "You've made my life hell. I don't want this."

"I treat you just fine!" May shouted at her Pokémon, her cheeks reddening. "I don't beat you or starve you or…"

"May."

May was immediately silenced by Spirit's voice. She turned sharply towards her Ninetales.

"As much as I hate to criticize you, Lapras is right," the fox said. "I watched your battle yesterday. Perhaps you have changed in your attitude towards Pokémon, but I do know that you would not have made _me_ take that Thunder."

The fierceness vanished immediately from May's face to be replaced with dumbfounded incredulity. She opened her mouth to say something, but only a small, stupid sound came out.

"Well, it's true," Alan commented quietly. "That was ugly battling. You don't make a Pokémon suffer an extra attack, let alone one that powerful, if it doesn't serve a very clear purpose, and even then, if the Pokémon asks to be recalled, you should always do it."

All this did was point May's shocked gaze towards Alan instead of Spirit. Lapras looked once spitefully at her trainer and then seemingly recalled herself to her Pokéball.

A few awkward seconds passed before May suddenly seemed to snap out of a trance, her face returning to the determined expression she ordinarily had when battling like nothing had happened.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Wake Thunderyu up already."

There were a few seconds of stunned silence.

_"Right,"_ Chaletwo's voice said, apparently deciding to act like nothing had happened too. _"Get into position… maybe move a bit farther from each other…"_

Mark and Alan doubtfully, but with some relief, backed away from May.

_"Okay, ready?"_ Chaletwo asked. _"I'll wake him, then… one, two…"_

A large bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. A thunder roared a split second afterwards, but it was not the only roar that was heard, because in the background was a deep rumble that seemed to come from the mountain itself. Mark's heart was beating faster already as the rumble rose to a high-pitched cry.

_"Here he comes…"_ Chaletwo's voice said.

There was an earth-shaking boom from deep inside the mountain.

Boom. Another one.

_"Oh, damn it…"_ Chaletwo muttered. _"He's more powerful than I remembered…"_

The booms grew faster and at the same time more powerful. Mark was becoming truly afraid of what might crawl out of that cave…

_"He's not going to break out through Thunderclap Cave!"_ Chaletwo suddenly realized with a hint of panic in his telepathic voice. _"He's… he's… he's going to smash out of the top of the mountain! Quick, flyers, be ready at the top! Now!"_

No sooner had Charizard, Butterfree, Dragonair, Skarmory, Scyther and Charlie in Charizard form flown up to circle the mountain's peak than it exploded. The six Pokémon had to fly quickly out of the way of the flying chunks of rock; in the middle of it all, Thunderyu finally climbed through the newly-formed hole, spread out his great wings for the first time and shot into the air with a cry.

He was a slender golden dragon, lightly built, but with very large wings that gave his flight a certain grace despite still being a little shaky. Mark could only barely make out his face: a long narrowing snout, two white horns and two deep blue gems embedded into his scaly forehead like in several other places on his body.

Then Thunderyu opened his mouth wide and cried out again – and a bolt of lightning struck one of the flying Charizard directly. Mark's heart stopped for a second – then the one who was still airborne nodded towards him and swooped upwards.

"Charlie!" Alan screamed as the unlucky dragon crashed pathetically into the ground below.

_"You can think about him later!"_ Chaletwo's voice shouted. _"Don't be distracted! Attack it! Go! Go! Go!"_

"Dragonair, use a Twister, quick!" Mark yelled, his eyes wide as he was slowly realizing just how powerful a Pokémon they were facing. "Slash it, Scyther! Flamethrower, Charizard! Don't let it hit you, no matter what!"

He darted his eyes quickly towards Alan; he was very pale, but shouting orders at his Pokémon nonetheless while the unconscious Charlie was absorbed into the Pokéball. May was determined as ever, but visibly nervous.

_"Watch Thunderyu!"_ Chaletwo hissed into his mind, and Mark quickly looked back at the dragon. He was firing a bolt of electricity at Charizard while the orange dragon was breathing a plume of fire. Charizard narrowly dived under the Thunderbolt; Thunderyu swooped sideways to avoid the flames, but miscalculated his own wingspan and his sensitive wing membrane was scorched by Charizard's fire. He let out another one of his piercing cries, but the momentary distraction that arose from this was chance enough for Scyther to zoom at the dragon's back with his scythes raised.

Thunderyu turned around quickly, narrowly managing to prevent the mantis from succeeding in his intentions to damage the wing even more but instead allowing the slash to hit his side. Scyther slashed at the wing again and hit this time. Roaring in pain, Thunderyu retaliated with a Thunderbolt which the insect Pokémon had no chance of avoiding, and Scyther dropped weakly to the ground.

Right at that moment, before Thunderyu could regain his sense of direction, a green tornado from Dragonair came speeding towards him. The legendary quickly countered by whipping up his own Twister; while the two tornadoes destroyed each other, however, Thunderyu barely had time to look up before Charizard's tail came flying towards him at high speed and smashed straight into his head. With a cry of pain, the electric dragon struggled to keep himself in the air.

"Return, Scyther!" Mark said worriedly, recalling the mantis. He saw May's Butterfree make a brave attempt to use Sleep Powder, but the legendary flew easily out of the way and fried the butterfly with a Thunder. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Spirit and Vicky, Alan's Misdreavus, had finished charging up a large Shadow Ball together and fired it at the dragon.

"Mist, Ice Beam!" Alan yelled, and his Vaporeon crouched on the ground, aiming carefully before shooting a magnificent beam of ice. Thunderyu, in swooping down to dodge the Shadow Ball, was instead hit by the Ice attack; he was knocked backwards in the air and shivered there for a split second. Then in retaliation, he angrily fired a Thunderbolt at Mist, but she leapt out of the way.

The dragon sent another bolt of electricity at her, and again she dodged; this only angered Thunderyu even more, but instead of continuing the chase, he began to spin around in a kind of eerie mid-air dance.

"I don't like the look of this…" Mark muttered. "Dragonair, use a…"

He forgot how to speak when he saw what Thunderyu's dance was doing. The clouds above the dragon were swirling along with him while strands of them were stretching quickly downwards, reaching all the way to the ground in a few moments and half-engulfing the dragon in a vortex of clouds. Electric sparks danced across the surface of the towering cloud structure, the form of the dragon only barely visible deep within.

A bolt of lightning now struck Mist from the cloud without warning. She shrieked in agony as the electricity coursed through her body and struggled to remain on her feet, but her consciousness was quickly swept away and she collapsed on the ground, defeated.

"Return," Alan called with worry in his voice, recalling the Vaporeon.

"Skarmory, dive into there and attack it with a Drill Peck!" May shouted while Mark was still too stunned to say anything.

"Ska-a-a!" the steel vulture cried in confirmation, swooping straight towards the cloud pillar. Mark watched with dread as the bird penetrated the wall of clouds, and screamed in pain as the electricity surged into his body. Skarmory's metallic body was beginning to glow with heat, and he used his last power to drive himself to spin and crash violently into Thunderyu beak-first. The dragon let out yet another cry, knocked backwards by a few feet, but then smashed Skarmory down at the ground with his tail while the gap in the clouds closed. May silently recalled her Skarmory.

_"You're not participating, damn it!"_ Chaletwo suddenly yelled in frustration. _"Pokémon, where are half of you? You're just sitting around on the ground! Do something! Don't wait for your trainers! Pupitar, use a Rock Slide! Charizard, why aren't you Flamethrowering it through those clouds? Make yourselves useful already, for Mew's sake! This is the most damn important thing you're going to do in your pathetic little lives, and you're just standing there!"_

This kicked all the Pokémon into action, in fact to the point of everything becoming extremely chaotic. Mark caught a glimpse of Dragonair diving through the clouds with his tail orbs glowing, but then Charizard breathed a blast of flames through it at another end, and then he noticed Jolteon and Raichu had joined together to attempt to absorb the electricity from the cloud swirl. A series of boulders ripped out of the mountain and zoomed at unnatural speed straight at Thunderyu so that Dragonair only narrowly escaped after his attack. Thunderyu managed to destroy a few of the rocks with bolts of lightning, but one large one smashed straight into the legendary and knocked him harshly backwards – the cloud structure moved along with him. He quickly recovered, although he now seemed to need to flap his wings instead of gliding as he had before. Just then, Racko, Alan's Grovyle, emitted a loud, high-pitched screech that made Thunderyu roar in agony. They were weakening him; there was no question about it.

Mark suddenly noticed a blur of fire heading towards the vortex, and realized that it was Alan's Rapidash, Diamond, with a familiar sand-colored pangolin riding on her back.

"Sandslash!" he exclaimed in surprise as the fire horse Pokémon made for a giant leap straight up to where Thunderyu was hidden behind the swirling clouds. The Rapidash whinnied painfully as the electricity shocked her, but she was ready with her horn glowing, and Sandslash was not affected by the sparks at all.

Through the large gap in the clouds, Mark could see Diamond stabbing her horn powerfully into Thunderyu's underbelly. The dragon cried out in pain, pumping powerful electricity into the horse's body, but meanwhile Sandslash leapt off her back and landed on Thunderyu's, digging his long claws through the dragon's scales.

The legendary roared in pain and thrashed violently about in the air in an attempt to get Sandslash off, flapping his wings irregularly. The cloud vortex seemed to be starting to dissolve, and Vicky and Spirit used the opportunity to charge up another combined Shadow Ball and fire it just as Dragonair dived at Thunderyu again and smacked his tail orbs into the other dragon's head.

The legendary Pokémon roared in pain as he was struck by both attacks. Suddenly his eyes glowed with blood red and at the very same moment, the thunderstorm intensified with showering rain. Steam rose from the dragon's scales.

_"He's using Outrage!"_ Chaletwo shouted. _"Watch out!"_

Mark watched in horror as Thunderyu's entire body flared up in blue flames. Sandslash, still embedded into Thunderyu's back by the claws, screamed in pain as the dragon flames enveloped him, and as the dragon shook himself violently yet again, Sandslash dropped off, fell and hit the ground below.

Just as Mark recalled Sandslash, Thunderyu emitted an ear-splitting cry, and in an instant, three bolts of lightning struck Charizard, Vicky and Racko. While Charizard roared and crashed into the ground, the legendary's form disappeared almost completely in the intensifying blue flames and he swooped straight at Dragonair.

"Don't let him catch you!" Mark yelled, but it was too late: Thunderyu had already engulfed Dragonair in the blue fire, and the snakelike dragon had no way of escaping from the super-effective attack. Only seconds passed before he dropped limply to the ground.

"Return," Mark whispered as he recalled both of his dragon Pokémon. Now all he had left was Jolteon and Letal…

Thunderyu roared and breathed a tongue of eerie dragon flames down towards where Jolteon and Raichu stood, but a creamy white shape leapt into the way.

"Spirit!" May screamed as the Ninetales shielded the two smaller Pokémon with her body, giving them an opportunity to run.

"Curse!" May gasped in realization. "If you manage it, we'll just have to survive long enough and we'll beat it!"

Spirit's eyes began to glow a hellish red as they had in the Gym battle, but Thunderyu instantly dived down and threw the fox Pokémon to the ground, wrapping her in dragon fire.

"No!"

The red beam of a Pokéball absorbed Spirit into it, leaving Thunderyu crouching on the ground for a second. May's face was paper-white by now, but she made a quick command:

"Pupitar, Earthquake!"

The pupa was very weakened by the pouring rain, but used his last powers to bounce into the air. When he crashed back into the ground, he closed his eyes in exhaustion and allowed his consciousness to drift away while his final attack produced unnatural ripples in the ground. It looked like it would be futile: Thunderyu was already spreading his wings for flight.

_"Hold it down, hold it down!"_ Chaletwo yelled frantically.

Letal, Pamela, Raichu and Jolteon did not need to be told this twice; in an instant they all leapt onto the dragon's back, knocking him back down at the ground and doing their best to attack him at the same time.

Thunderyu roared in pain, exhausting a flurry of electric sparks while the blue fire flared up anew. The four Pokémon on top of Thunderyu screamed, exposed to both Thunderyu's Electric and Dragon powers and Pupitar's Earthquake, but faithfully endured it and remained where they were, preventing Thunderyu from escaping the last attack.

When the Earthquake ended, they had all fainted.

Thunderyu shook them off and rose slowly up before taking off again.

_"Damn it!"_ Chaletwo swore in their heads. _"Damn it, damn it! Ultra Ball, quick!"_

Mark grabbed a black and yellow Pokéball from his pocket and tossed it with all his might at the ascending dragon. Miraculously, the ball hit.

The dragon roared as he was absorbed into it and the ball dropped down to the ground. It wobbled.

Wobble.

Wobble.

The ball popped open.

"No!" Mark whispered as the dragon materialized in the air again. Thunderyu roared and glared at the three kids.

His body flared blue.

He dived.

Time seemed to slow down to a snail's pace just then. The dragon descended with murderous eyes. Mark was frozen with fear.

May took out a Pokéball.

She threw it, her lips barely moving as she whispered three words:

"Lapras, I'm sorry."

Time sped up again. The light from the Pokéball materialized into the shape of the blue turtle, and she fired a beam of ice at the approaching Thunderyu. The dragon cried out in extreme pain, layers of frost forming on his wings, until he crashed into the ground just in front of them, frozen.

It took Mark a couple of seconds to snap out of his trance and reach for a second Ultra Ball. He threw it weakly at the immobile dragon.

Thunderyu's shape dissolved into red light and was drawn into the ball. It closed tightly and began to shake.

Wobble.

Wobble.

Wobble.

It took a sharp violent twitch which made Mark's heart stop for a second – but then the button on the ball stopped glowing and it stilled on the ground with a ping.

Everybody just stared at it for a couple of seconds.

Finally Alan was the one who stepped forward and carefully picked it up. He looked at it in his hand, broke out in a grin and started laughing.

Alan handed the ball to Mark, and Mark couldn't help laughing too.

_"YES!"_ Chaletwo cried triumphantly.

"We did it! I can't believe it, we did it!" Mark shouted, still laughing.

May didn't laugh. She just threw herself around Lapras's neck and whispered, "I'm so sorry…"

Lapras hung her head miserably.

Mark watched the Pokéball disappear from his hand. Now Thunderyu was sealed safely away on the PC. One legendary Pokémon down, many more to go.

And he realized, inexplicably, that the experience of the legendary battle, while terrible while it was going on, had been the most exciting and exhilarating event of his life.

He wanted to do it again.

"I've just gone insane," he muttered to himself, still with a grin plastered on his face.

High above, the skies were clearing.


	35. Return to Cleanwater

**Chapter 34: Return to Cleanwater**

They were on their way back to Stormy Town to get their Pokémon healed when they met Sparky on the road.

He looked at them with one of his amused grins. His silver shades were now appropriate for the first time: the sun was shining brightly, and nothing indicated that the town had before been eternally plagued by thunderstorms.

"Lovely weather, isn't it?" Sparky said when none of the kids were saying anything.

"Um, yeah, I guess," Mark replied awkwardly. Sparky raised an eyebrow, grinning even more.

"Oh, come on," he chuckled. "We all know you had something to do with it. Or at least you can tell me why our beloved Mount Flash has lost a few of its meters above sea level since yesterday, since you happened to be positioned so close to it. I daresay all the evidence suggests that the explosions that woke up the whole town were connected to that."

Mark looked quickly back at the mountain. Loose rocks and pebbles were still rolling down the slope, leaving behind a trail of swirling dust.

"Eh, well…"

"Or perhaps," Sparky suggested, "you know something about the peculiar cloud formation I eyed through my window earlier? Or the intense Pokémon battle that appeared to be taking place in mid-air?"

_"Oh f… crap,"_ Chaletwo groaned.

_What should I tell him?_ Mark thought desperately.

_"I don't think he'd buy anything but the truth,"_ Chaletwo sighed. _"He knows too much already, and if it's true you woke up all the people in town… You know which bits to make up."_

Mark took a deep breath. "Well, see, we came here this morning to do some training…" He suddenly realized this wasn't working out in an area devoid of wild Pokémon and quickly added: "…just against one another, I mean – more space here, you know – and then suddenly the mountain exploded and out came this electric dragon thing that attacked our Pokémon so we let them attack it back and finally defeated it."

Sparky raised an eyebrow and looked around. "I don't see a dragon anywhere. You didn't catch it, did you?"

"We did," Mark replied, not sure how else he could explain the dragon's absence; he had after all already said they had defeated it, and then saying it had flown away would not make any sense. "And when we had caught it, the thunderstorm stopped, so we were thinking maybe the dragon was causing it all this time."

Sparky surveyed him with interest. "Well, that's strange." Looking at Alan, he continued: "I thought your father had come here along with a team of researchers to do measurements in Thunderclap Cave, exactly because people suspected that sort of thing, and concluded that there was no sign of the presence of an Electric Pokémon powerful enough to be a cause for this kind of constant storm?"

"Well, he was wrong for once, then," Alan said loudly. "Because you see, that thing nearly killed seventeen Pokémon, and if that's powerful enough for you, we'd very much like to be able to get them to Nurse Joy as soon as possible, if you don't mind."

"Oh, of course – how very inconsiderate of me," Sparky replied apologetically, got out of the way and then walked along by Mark's side. "So, say, is there any way I could see this dragon you speak of?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Mark said unsurely. "I mean, it might attack us or something…"

Sparky nodded. "Shame as it is, that does seem to make sense. Well, let's not waste any more time on that for now, and instead let's get your Pokémon under care."

They hurried on the road back towards the city.

Once they entered Stormy Town, they saw something quite unusual for the town: there were people outdoors. The few remaining inhabitants all seemed to be standing on the streets, stretching their arms towards the beautiful sky in wondrous astonishment. Sparky only smiled as he watched them look questioningly at him, but strode confidently towards the Pokémon Center, the kids following his example. As they entered the familiar building once again, May handed her Pokéballs faintly to Mark and then collapsed into one of the waiting chairs.

He hadn't really paid any particular attention to her from the end of the battle until now for some reason, but now he could see that she looked awfully pale and distraught. She sort of stared forward at nothing in particular with a blank expression on her face, like a guy in a movie Mark had seen once whose brain had been taken over by a group of evil Psychic Pokémon. He couldn't help smiling slightly at the thought for a second, but forced it off his face, handed the Pokéballs quickly to the concerned-looking Alan and sat down beside May.

"Are you all right?"

"What?" she asked distractedly, snapping out of a trance. She looked at Mark. "Yes… yes, I'm fine…"

"You don't look fine."

"Well, I am," May insisted. Mark sighed and decided not to bother her further; instead he just folded his arms on his chair and waited. May looked at Alan a couple of times, but Alan was too busy to pacing around by the counter to notice it, occasionally running his hand in distress through his messy hair while he waited for Sparky to get Nurse Joy.

"Alan, you know your Pokémon's state is stable for as long as they're in their Pokéballs," Mark pointed out. "There's no need to feel pressed for time."

Alan abruptly looked at him. "Yeah, I know, but I'd still prefer to get my Pokémon under the hands of Nurse Joy as soon as… oh, speak of the devil."

Sparky and Joy entered the room, both giggling at something they had been talking about. Alan looked even more frustrated at the fact Nurse Joy didn't seem to be in a hurry at all. He thrust the eighteen minimized Pokéballs at her and she took them, still giggling. "Any that need special treatment?"

Alan looked blankly at her. "I… I think they're all pretty severely injured, actually," he said in a weird, high-pitched voice.

"Oh, dear," the nurse said, rubbing her eyes. "Better get to work, then, I guess…"

She looked apologetically at Sparky, quickly organized the Pokéballs on trays and carried them into the back room.

"Don't worry, she'll fix them up in no time if they're not dead already," Sparky said cheerfully to Alan as he opened his mouth. Alan closed it again and now suddenly looked over at May.

"My God, are you okay?" he asked, hurrying over to her.

"I'm fine," she emphasized. "That battle was just… a little haunting."

She wiped her face quickly with her sleeve and shook her head.

"I… Do you think Lapras is going to be all right?" she murmured after a pause.

Alan sighed, knelt down in front of her chair and took his hand in his. "Of course she'll be all right," he said. "You heard Sparky. Nurse Joy can fix them up."

May shook her head. "No, I mean… is she going to stay with me?"

Alan inhaled deeply. "I… I really can't say. That's Lapras's own decision. Don't think about that."

"I need a Water and Ice Pokémon in my team," May muttered. "There are Fire and Dragon Pokémon all over the League and…"

Alan let go off her hand, stood up, turned around and grabbed his hair with his fingers again. "Oh, my God…" he groaned before abruptly turning back again.

"Look, May… stop thinking about your team for once. Stop thinking about type-matchups and statistics and technicalities. Never mind all that. It's trivial. Didn't you ever read… or learn… at school… God, why don't you get it? You're not supposed to be concerned because you need a Water or Ice Pokémon in your team! You're supposed to be concerned because of Lapras's feelings!"

May didn't really react at all; she was too busy staring intently at her fingernails. Alan ranted a little more in the same direction; he looked as if he were about to have a nervous breakdown over it, but Mark couldn't help feeling that in fact May's Water and Ice Pokémon remark had been more of an attempt to rationalize her feelings to herself. In a distant way he could identify with her – in his mind's eye he saw Miss Taintor sneer at his eight-year-old self's drawings and recalled the feeling of that horrifying realization of being imperfect, of being criticized for the first time after years of blissfully believing he had nothing to be despised for, of desperately wondering just why no one had ever told him before.

Despite feeling a little sorry for her, he smiled: it was only after that, after all, that he had finally become a good artist.

And even if May seemed unredeemable, Mark was certain that Lapras had done both her and her Pokémon a big favour.

"I'm starving," May suddenly muttered, looking up as Alan stopped to breathe. "Sparky, do you serve breakfast?"

Sparky, who had been absent-mindedly examining his own Gym poster, turned innocently around. "Oh? …Oh, yes, we do! Let's come over to the restaurant, shall we?"

Alan stopped tearing his hair out and nodded, taking a few deep breaths. "Okay. Breakfast. Sounds good."

Mark was just realizing how hungry he was as well.

* * *

They ate a nice cooked breakfast at the Gym before returning to the Pokémon Center to wait for Nurse Joy to bring their Pokémon back. Alan appeared to have calmed down after having taken his frustration out on May earlier, and she indeed looked subtly grateful for that. They just hung around and talked half-heartedly for a couple of hours before finally the nurse walked out of the back room with the Pokéball trays.

Alan sprang up immediately. "Are they all okay?"

"Not quite," Nurse Joy admitted. "The Scyther and one of the Charizard are in quite a serious state – they seem to have fallen down from a great height after major electric shocks from what I can see, which is a nasty combination – and Butterfree is of course a frail Pokémon and is in a pretty bad state after similar levels of electric shock although she seems not to have fallen from such a great height or to have been recalled while still in the air. I think the Vaporeon is just barely conscious; I wouldn't really advise her to battle very seriously for a couple of days. And God, that Skarmory is pretty bad off – half of him seems slightly melted and the other half bent. I think the Sandslash broke a bone, but you know how Pokémon are – it heals at absolutely amazing speed, so he is technically okay although he's going to have a bit of a limp today. Oh, and that Jolteon seems to be in slight shock, but physically he's all right. I think that's all."

Alan stared at her in horror.

"I've seen much worse than that," Joy said helpfully. "And as I said, you know how Pokémon are – they'll all be fine by tomorrow, I should think."

Mark quickly went over the Pokémon in his head. This meant he had Charizard (assuming Nurse Joy had meant Charlie when she mentioned "one of the Charizard"), Jolteon (if he was willing to battle), Sandslash (albeit with a limp), Letal, Dragonair and Gyarados. May had Raichu, Pupitar, Spirit and – well, did she or did she not have Lapras? And Alan had Racko, Vicky, Diamond and Pamela – and technically Mist, but she was being advised not to battle.

"Well, that's okay," he said when no one else said anything. "We'll just head out on our way, then, won't we? You can transfer the Pokémon to other Pokémon Centers, right?"

Sparky nodded and smiled. "All right, then! It's truly been great knowing you, and I sincerely hope we will meet again and that you will be bringers of more such fortune as what you have now brought to Stormy Town. No more thunderstorms! Who would have thought?"

Mark smiled slightly. "It's been nice knowing you, too. Thanks for the birthday party."

"Goodbye, then," Nurse Joy said pleasantly. "Just ask the nurse wherever you're heading to ring up the Stormy Town Pokémon Center sometime tomorrow and I'll update you on the status of your Pokémon and send them over, all right?"

"Goodbye, both of you," May said. "Thanks for the badge, Sparky."

"Bye, and uh, I hope I'll see you again sometime," Alan said in an attempt to be cheerful.

"I hope so too," Sparky replied. "Unless we're going to be too busy with all the new business we're going to get now that the town's weather conditions aren't as unattractive anymore." He grinned widely under his shades.

The kids picked up their bags and Pokéballs. "Well, bye, then," Mark said awkwardly as they turned to exit. As they left, he looked over his shoulder and could see Sparky waving enthusiastically.

* * *

_Chaletwo?_ Mark thought once they were walking southwest on the road that went towards Crater Town. _Where do we go now?_

Chaletwo's ever-present voice sighed. _"Suicune,"_ he said. _"Go through Thunderclap Cave, and then take the Route 217 shortcut to Cleanwater City. You should easily make it before nightfall."_

Mark was taken aback. _But we can't battle another legendary now!_ he protested. _At least four of our Pokémon are seriously injured!_

_"No matter,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"You can still try. Suicune is different. He won't kill you if you don't beat him. He'll just run for it and return the next evening as usual. I know what he's like."_

Mark was a little sceptical, but did not reply.

"All right, Chaletwo says we should go to Cleanwater City to fight Suicune," he said aloud. Yet again, May and Alan were walking ahead of him; Alan turned around.

"Huh?" he asked quizzically. "With half of our Pokémon still recovering from the last legendary battle at a Pokémon Center? Is he nuts?"

_"I'm perfectly sane, thank you,"_ Chaletwo said coldly. _"I just happen to realize that if there is any chance we manage to get Suicune tonight, then we should get Suicune tonight. As I was saying to Mark, Suicune won't kill you if he defeats your Pokémon, he won't kill them, and he will still return tomorrow evening, guaranteed."_

Alan looked every bit as sceptical as Mark, but did not protest. May said nothing.

So Mark had no choice but to say what they were probably all thinking himself: "Eh, just how sure are you of that?"

_"Absolutely sure!"_ Chaletwo replied, irritated. _"Suicune is one of the traditionalist legendaries. He follows Mew like a sheep. As far as he's concerned, cleaning the lake is what he is 'meant' to do, and if it is his 'fate' to be caught while doing so, so be it. Suicune isn't the type to kill anybody."_

_Gyarados would beg to differ,_ Mark couldn't help thinking.

_"Well, he doesn't look dead to me, does he?"_ Chaletwo snapped. _"Just do it! You already agreed to take part in it. Now trust me and do as I say. Go through Thunderclap Cave; it's a shortcut."_

Mark couldn't help thinking he hadn't really agreed to do anything and Chaletwo had never presented this as a choice of any kind, but if Chaletwo picked that up from his mind at all, he didn't respond.

"Cleanwater City sounds fine to me," May muttered at last. "I caught Lapras at the Lake of Purity. It would be a nice place to talk to her."

Mark looked at her. "Well, okay, I guess," he said. "Let's go, then."

They walked on back towards Mount Flash on the same road as they had that morning, but this time the sun was shining brightly and there was hardly a cloud to be seen. May's mood seemed to be getting better as well. She had released Spirit, who was now trotting along with them, and her presence seemed to cheer her trainer up considerably.

"I should really get to catching some more Pokémon," May said randomly. "I've only got six, after all, and it's always nice to have some backup, right? You need six for the League, don't you? I'd better get a few more…"

Alan just smiled awkwardly. "Well, don't… I mean, don't treat them as replaceable or anything. If Lapras goes, then… having another Pokémon in her stead doesn't just fix it."

"I don't think it does!" she replied defensively. "I – I just… I want a decent number of Pokémon, that's all!"

"Stop bickering," Mark said and sighed. "You're like a married couple."

"We're not!" May shouted, her face beet red, and strode ahead of the boys in frustration. Spirit smirked and galloped after her.

Mark couldn't help giggling.

"Oh, shut up," Alan said and elbowed Mark loosely before hurrying to catch up with May again. Mark just shook his head, grinning, and kept on walking. He didn't mind so much that he was last anymore. Bizarrely, he was also feeling much more at ease about the upcoming Suicune battle than he had about Thunderyu, even though reason told him he should be very concerned about the considerably reduced numbers of Pokémon they had to fight it with. In fact, he felt even mildly excited.

Feelings, he concluded, were insane.

They climbed the mountain at a steady pace and it was not long before they reached the entrance to Thunderclap Cave in roughly the middle of the hillside. The mouth of the cave was a large crack that was wide at the bottom but narrowed to nothing a few meters up the cliff. The darkness inside was decidedly eerie.

"Okay, who knows Flash?" Alan asked, looking at May.

She shook her head. "It's an awful move," she just said.

"Mark?"

He looked blankly at Alan and shook his head, but then realized, "Well, Charizard's tail flame should do the trick."

Alan slapped his forehead. "Oh, yeah," he muttered. "I forgot your Charizard was still okay."

Mark somehow felt a little bit guilty that Charizard had recovered but Charlie had not, but said nothing. He just took out Charizard's Pokéball and dropped it onto the ground so that the dragon emerged. He looked around quickly, but then at Mark and smiled awkwardly.

"Nurse Joy told me you caught Thunderyu, so congratulations, I guess." He paused for a second. "Why did you send me out?"

Alan pointed at the cave entrance. "We were just hoping your tail flame would be able to light up the interior of the ca…"

He stopped dead as a loud, threatening bark sounded from the shadowy insides of the cave. A sudden flash of light lit up the dark cave so that momentarily they could see the tunnel sloping down into total darkness; the source of the light and the bark was a small, green, doglike Pokémon with an oddly cone-shaped head and ears, which had just flashed with electric light for a second to illuminate its surroundings.

"Trike!" it barked again from the darkness and growled.

"Let me handle it," Charizard just said and stepped towards the mouth of the cave. He let out a quiet, frightening growl before breathing a tongue of fire straight forward. The orange light illuminated the cave again; they saw the little Electrike yelp and recoil in fear before its head sparkled with electricity and a bolt of lightning rushed towards Charizard. The dragon roared in pain, his fire clearing away and leaving the cave in darkness again before he angrily fired a Flamethrower at random into the crack. The fire lit up the rocks; the Electrike appeared to have fled.

Charizard growled in annoyance but climbed into the cave, swung his tail flame to his side so that it would light up the surroundings, and led the way in.

The descent was slow; numerous times, Charizard was forced to wait with his tail flame over some particularly rough terrain while the kids attempted to cross it. Occasionally they saw a flash of light from deeper within the cave, illuminating the tunnel for a brief moment.

"Dad told me that in Thunderclap Cave, the Electric Pokémon have evolved to know Flash from birth and use it to see around," Alan told them. "If they get lost, they just use Flash for a quick look at their surroundings, go however far that allowed them to see, and then Flash again. They have also evolved a photographic memory to save energy between individual uses of the move. Then many other Pokémon in the cave have evolved to depend entirely upon waiting for an Electric Pokémon when they need to see. It's pretty amazing."

"Really?" May asked with interest. "Then what sort of Pokémon are the others? Just the typical cave stuff, or…"

She recoiled backwards after realizing she had stepped on something too smooth to be a rock. Charizard quickly swung his tail forward to reveal a startled little Pokémon. It looked like a bug with a brown shell and a massive round head which May had apparently stepped on; it screwed its shiny black eyes shut at the light of the fire while snapping randomly at the air with its jagged mouth.

"A Trapinch!" May exclaimed in delight. "I'm catching it! Go, Butterfree, and use a Sleep Powder before it gets away!"

She threw a Pokéball, and her butterfly emerged in a bright shower of light.

"Piiiinch!" the Pokémon screamed and ran for it into the cave.

"Charizard, follow so Butterfree can see!" May hissed, running after the Trapinch with her two Pokémon. Charizard clumsily dashed after them, his legs not made for running; the boys followed hesitantly.

They were in luck: the Trapinch, without an Electric Pokémon's Flash to guide it, had stumbled into a dead end, bumped into the wall and was cornered when Charizard's tail flame illuminated the scene.

"Piiiinch!" the Pokémon shrieked and ran at May's leg, clamping its powerful jaws around her ankle.

"Youch!" May's mouth curled into an expression of disgust as she attempted wildly but unsuccessfully to shake the Trapinch off her. When she realized it was holding on strongly as ever, she changed her strategy and began to kick at the cave wall, smashing the Trapinch repeatedly into it.

"Stop it! You're hurting it!" Alan shouted, horrified.

"It's hurting me too, isn't it?" May snapped, but stopped it anyway. "Butterfree, Sleep Powder! And don't get any on me!"

She held her leg out, and the butterfly Pokémon flapped her wings while May turned in the other direction and held her breath. Sparkly, green dust sprinkled over the horrified antlion Pokémon, and within seconds it was fast asleep, its eyes peacefully shut and its legs limp.

"Oh, damn it," May muttered as she recalled Butterfree. "Its jaws aren't loosening."

"We'll have to pry it off, I guess," Alan said, sounding a little worried. "Mark, help me with this."

The boys knelt down and grabbed the Trapinch's jaws to try to force them apart, but they wouldn't budge. May's leg was bleeding a little underneath the jagged edges of its mouth.

She slapped her forehead. "Oh, of course. This is a much easier way. I should have thought of it before."

And she plucked a Pokéball off her necklace and dropped it at the Trapinch so that it dissolved into red energy and was absorbed into the ball.

She cringed in pain and examined the bleeding teeth marks on her ankle as the ball wobbled on the ground and stilled with a soft ping. "Nasty. Hey, Alan, will you get some bandages out of my bag?"

She reached for the Pokéball with Trapinch, minimized it and reattached it to her necklace while Alan opened the blue bag slung over her shoulder and browsed through its contents. He quickly found a box of bandages and applied a few to May's ankle while Mark looked around in the light of Charizard's flame. Spirit was standing there calmly as usual, looking at her trainer with an inscrutable expression; behind her, the path split into two tunnels and at least one of them, he could see in the short-ranged light of Charizard's flame, split again.

"This place is like a maze," he said. "How are we going to know which way to go?"

"Easy enough," Spirit said and smirked before turning semitransparent and dashing into the nearest wall.

"You show-off," May said and smiled as she stood up. "Thanks, Alan."

"Don't mention it, but uh…" Alan asked hesitantly, "exactly what is Spirit doing?"

"Oh, she likes to do that when people get lost. She just runs through the walls to find the exit and then tries to trace the way back in solid form. It's not _that_ efficient – back home, we were once stuck in Ilex Forest for two hours even with her running around back and forth between Goldenrod and me. In the end she got so exhausted from keeping herself in spirit form that we needed somebody else to help me."

But just as May was giggling at the thought, Spirit reappeared in one of the tunnels; Mark couldn't help thinking she looked slightly offended that May had actually told them that story.

"The way out is not long," she said. "Follow me."

They followed Spirit and Charizard ahead in silence; they saw the occasional flash of electricity, but the Pokémon appeared to have mostly noticed their presence by now and reached the general consensus that they were best left alone. They walked on in silence for a while.

May sighed. "Well, I got that Trapinch," she said in an attempt to start a conversation. "It won't be of much use against Suicune, though…"

"A Pokémon's value isn't measured in…" Alan began.

"Yes, I get it already!" May snapped, interrupting him. "Love your Pokémon and all that! No need to beat it into my head! I'm just trying to say that Trapinch isn't going to be a big help in that battle, okay? And don't say any Pokémon can beat any Pokémon, because that's not how it works and you know it. Stop being so politically correct, will you?"

Alan opened his mouth, but closed it again in defeat.

"Thank you," May said shortly, but was just turning around when a sudden flash of bright electrical light momentarily illuminated the entirety of room they were in. She gasped in astonishment: they had just entered a gigantic chamber full of magnificent stalactites and stalagmites, often joined into great columns of many meters tall reaching from floor to ceiling.

"That's awesome," Alan breathed in the darkness. "Dad told me about this, but I never saw it for myself."

Charizard swung his tail quickly towards one of the columns and the source of the previous flash of electricity was revealed: a Manectric stood beside it, bared its fangs at them and growled, its pyramid-shaped mane sparkling with electricity.

"Spirit, Flamethrower!" May yelled.

The Ninetales leapt out in front of them, opened her mouth and breathed out a swirling tongue of flames, but the blue dog quickly shielded itself behind the column while charging up electricity. Just as Spirit stopped to breathe, it jumped out again and fired a bolt of electricity at her. She growled in pain as the electricity singed her fur, but quickly shook the ash off; flames formed in her mouth as she leapt around the column and breathed a blast of flames straight at the Manectric. It yelped in pain as it was scorched by the fire, but shook it off quickly and countered with a Thunder Wave before leaping to the other end of the column again to growl at Charizard.

Spirit tried to jump after it, but the paralysis made her clumsy and instead she crashed harshly into the column of rock. The Manectric used the opportunity to turn quickly around and fire a powerful Thunderbolt at her.

Spirit lay there weakly and didn't move; Mark wasn't sure if she was on the verge of fainting or just fully paralyzed, and had no time to think about it before Charizard shot a Flamethrower at the dog Pokémon. It leapt quickly out of the way and the fire instead engulfed Spirit; Mark was worried for a second, but then looked at May and saw she looked perfectly calm.

"She has the Flash Fire ability," she said to Mark as Spirit, unharmed but glowing with an orange aura, rose painfully up. "Fire just powers her up…"

The tired Manectric crouched down, growled and leapt at her, but miscalculated the jump by an inch and landed right on the column, where it dropped back down to the cave floor. It stood up, but just as it got to its feet, Charizard swung his tail with a roar, smashing it into the dog Pokémon's body and, at the same time, the column.

It wasn't a particularly strong column. It had been hit by blasts of fire and electricity and rammed powerfully by three different Pokémon, and now it cracked.

As Charizard's tail passed, it took the column with it. Mark watched in panic as it collapsed and some of the ceiling with it; the kids and the Pokémon scattered in disorganization around the chamber while chunks of rock smashed into the floor. It took a little while after the last pieces had settled before anyone dared to move.

"You guys all okay?" Alan asked from somewhere in the darkness and Charizard moved his tail flame to illuminate him. They all confirmed they were fine.

"So where's the exit to this room, Spirit?" May asked shakily.

"This way," Spirit said, fading back into solidness from the spirit form, which she seemed to have narrowly managed to get into while too paralyzed to escape the rocks. Mark thought he could just barely make out her ghostly white form still emitting just a slight glow where she was; then she breathed out a small flame to show herself, illuminating her form with orange light, and he figured he must have been imagining it. He began to walk carefully across the room after Spirit by the light of Charizard's tail flame.

There was a loud bonk and an array of swear words.

Charizard quickly swung his tail flame in the direction of the sound; May had tripped and fallen headfirst into the floor. She rubbed her head painfully, drying some blood off her forehead with the back of her hand before pushing herself to her feet.

"I'm fine," she emphasized and Charizard momentarily turned his flame away from her. Then she let out a yelp of fear.

"What is it?" Alan called and hurried over. Charizard once again moved his tail flame in May's direction. She was staring in horror down at what she had tripped over. Mark's heart skipped a beat.

It was the limp body of the Manectric, half-crushed beneath a large chunk of rock. The blood that May's leg was drenched in was not her own, but originated in a large puddle at her feet.

Alan stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh, God," he just said.

"Is… is it dead?" Mark asked quietly, unable to think of anything else to do or say.

"I don't know," May just said in a broken voice. "Oh, God. Damn it."

Mark approached carefully, not sure what he was planning to do if he was even planning to do anything at all. May walked unsteadily around the Pokémon to its head, which was facing towards Mark.

Its eyes flicked open, glazed over; he could see its furred chest rising and falling irregularly as it struggled to breathe. It took a look at them, one of pure hatred, and uttered with difficulty three words in its language:

"Let me die."

"If I capture it, we can maybe get it to a Pokémon Ce…" May began, but was cut off by a low, intimidating growl.

"I don't want your help, human. Let me die in peace."

The Manectric closed its eyes; its irregular breathing slowed down, and then it stopped.

May took a couple of steps back away from it. Mark could see her shiver even from where he stood.

"I should have caught it anyway," she muttered.

"No, it's… if it didn't want… I… oh, God," Alan replied incomprehensibly.

Mark just couldn't think of anything to say. His mind seemed numb; he looked again at May's bloodstained clothes and felt a little nauseous all of a sudden. They had watched the Manectric die. They had been unable to do anything about it – or just unwilling?

"Trike?" came a little squeak from the darkness. Mark watched with dread as a tiny version of the Pokémon they had first seen when they entered the cave stepped carefully into the light of Charizard's flame. The Electrike pup looked at them hesitantly through large blue eyes, sniffing the air, but apparently came to the conclusion they were not dangerous; it winced as the smell of blood wafted through its nostrils and then unsteadily approached the Manectric's body. It instinctively searched the dead Pokémon's underbelly for a nipple and found one, but just poked it with its nose, sensing that something was not right.

"Oh, God," Mark said limply. "It… she was a mother."

The Electrike poked its mother with its muzzle but got no response. It tried again.

"Hey, there, little guy," Alan whispered, taking a careful step towards the Electrike. It backed fearfully away and gave its mother another desperate prod. "I don't think your mommy is coming back."

It understood the words, but did not comprehend their meaning. It gave Alan a puzzled look and its mother another push.

"She's dead. She won't stand up."

At first it mystified Mark how this seemed to have a meaning to the Electrike unlike Alan's previous way of putting it; the Pokémon stared up at him in disbelief, but the puzzlement was gone. Then he realized that a wild Pokémon would be bound to have an idea of death early on; he recalled when he had found Jolteon as an Eevee and again felt a little nauseous as he realized maybe something like this had happened to Jolteon's mother.

"Here, why don't I just take care of you instead?" Alan asked softly. "You'll be okay. Trust me."

The Electrike looked sceptically between its dead mother and Alan and then growled.

"It's okay," Alan repeated. "You still need somebody to take care of you, right? I don't want you to die too."

The Electrike looked sadly at its mother and considered it. "Trike trike," it muttered; it was clearly too young to speak proper Pokémon speech yet.

"I'm just going to make sure you get food and shelter, all right? No battling or anything – you're too young and I quit training, anyway. Just relax. I won't hurt you."

Alan was now squatting on the ground and extended his hand; the Pokémon backed away.

"Come on," he said desperately. "You're going to die if you're alone! Your mother died because she refused our help!"

Mark could see that Alan immediately regretted having said the last bit. The Electrike barked loudly at Alan and growled with newfound conviction now that it knew its mother had preferred death over human help, but then it turned quickly around and sped back into the darkness.

"No!" Alan yelled, but the Pokémon had vanished like it had never been there at all. He waited for a second as if to see if it would come back.

"We… we killed them," he muttered at last.

"It's not our fault," May said shakily, avoiding having to look at the Manectric's body. "The column collapsed, and if that Electrike didn't want to be helped, that's its own business."

Nobody said anything for a while.

"Come on," May finally said. "Let's go. No point staying here."

"Are we just going to leave her like that?" Alan asked unsurely, wincing as he looked at the dead Pokémon again. "I mean… shouldn't we bury her or something?"

"This is nature," May said in an unusually harsh voice. "You think wild Pokémon normally get buried when they die? At least this way she'll be of some use if some other Pokémon in the cave need some easy food. Maybe that Electrike can eat her while it's still too young to hunt on its own, if her body doesn't have too much sentimental value. We have no business doing anything with her. Let's just go."

"But…"

"I… I think I agree with May," Mark finally said, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Let's get out of here as soon as possible. There's nothing we can do for her… I mean… whatever we do won't bring her back to life."

"Chaletwo!" Alan suddenly yelled, looking wildly at Mark. "Chaletwo! You can resurrect people, right?"

_"Not if their bodies are crushed like that,"_ Chaletwo's voice answered with a sigh. _"It's sad that Manectric died and all, but you kids really have more important things to think about. You have to get to Cleanwater City before sunset. Just go."_

Alan winced hopelessly, clearly not satisfied with this conclusion but not too keen on arguing with Chaletwo. "I guess," he muttered.

Charizard spared a long look at the dead Manectric, but said nothing before they continued the walk through the cave after Spirit's lead. Spirit was admittedly still paralyzed and they had no Paralyz Heals, so she was occasionally having some trouble moving. They walked in silence now, all battling spirit gone; they saw a few wild Pokémon that illuminated the cave with the occasional bright Flash, but they were all small and did not pursue a battle, intimidated by the sight of Charizard and Spirit.

At last they saw light and climbed out of a wide crack in the other side of the mountain.

They admired the view. Rainbow Woods hugged the roots of the mountain below; past that, Cleanwater City stretched out over most of the area with Routes 201 and 202 on either side, Sailance just barely visible in the distance to the northwest, and the Lake of Purity southwest of the city, also surrounded by the beautiful forest.

"So yeah," May said finally. "We're out."

Alan nodded stupidly.

"Yeah," May repeated, staring transfixed at the lake in the distance before suddenly snapping out of her trance and looking at Mark. "So are we going to continue?"

Mark nodded dully. "Well, no use lingering here."

It was a rather uneventful walk. While Thunderclap Cave had had Pokémon, this part of Rainbow Woods seemed to have extraordinarily few, most likely because Pokémon in the area could so easily simply move a bit south to an area of the forest they felt more comfortable in. They saw a couple of Pidgey, but they seemed wary and nervous, suggesting that they had only ventured into this area of the forest in daring hopes of finding more food where there were fewer Pokémon to compete with. The kids arrived in Cleanwater City around five o'clock, tired, hungry, still in shock and generally not at all up for fighting another battle of epic proportions in a couple of hours.

"Chaletwo," Mark moaned when they had signed into their rooms at the hotel and were all resting in Mark's room with a few packages of fast food, "are you sure we can't just do this tomorrow?"

_"You can try again tomorrow if necessary! There's no need to delay the battle before even trying it. You beat Thunderyu, and Suicune can't fly. Of course you can do this."_

"We only have two thirds of the Pokémon we had this morning, for Christ's sake!" Alan said hotly. "There's no way we can do this and it's putting ourselves and our Pokémon in unnecessary danger!"

_"You have a chance,"_ Chaletwo insisted. _"And I told you nobody's going to die, okay?"_

Alan opened his mouth to say something, but abandoned the plan midway through and just closed his mouth again.

_"Well, then finish eating, at least, and then get over to the lake. Hurry up a little."_

They ate their food nervously and then headed outside; Spirit had been healed at the Pokémon Center when they had first arrived in the city so her sleek and graceful movements were back and she repeatedly trotted ahead of them on the road before waiting for them, walking for a moment by May's side and then dashing ahead again. They watched nervously as the sun moved slowly but steadily down in the western sky ahead of them.

_"Suicune arrives at the northwestern bank of the lake,"_ Chaletwo told them as they walked. _"And you should not get yourselves seen, so it would be best for you to go into the forest about there and wait there until everybody is gone and then get ready to take on Suicune. Oh – he might just dip a paw in the lake and then run away, which might be a problem. Any of your Pokémon got Mean Look?"_

"I do," said Spirit, who was at the moment walking alongside May.

"So does Vicky," Alan replied, "but does that mean they're going to be in some particular danger?"

_"No, no,"_ Chaletwo said distractedly. _"Both of them can turn invisible, right? It's best if you kids hide in the forest with your Pokémon inside their balls so Suicune won't notice anything while Spirit and Vicky wait somewhere closer, invisible. Then when Suicune is purifying the water, they pop out, work together to trap him with Mean Look as quickly as possible and then immediately you jump out, send out your Pokémon and bring him down. Sound like a plan?"_

Alan shrugged, not seeming overly impressed. "I guess so."

When they arrived at the lake, the tourist crowd was already beginning to thin, but it was nonetheless easy to sneak unnoticed into the forest.

"Why does the forest have to be so dense in here?" May complained, disentangling her foot from the undergrowth for the umpteenth time. As she shook her shoe out of the wiry roots, she suddenly froze.

"Wait a minute," she said. "What's that?"

"What?"

Then Mark saw it too: he caught a glimpse of something hiding behind a tree not too far by that moved.

The end of a leek stuck out from the side of the tree.

"Farfetch'd," Mark and May realized at the same time. Alan came up to see what they were looking at.

"Spirit, Quick Attack!" May suddenly shouted, startling the brown duck Pokémon to fly clumsily up from the ground just as the Ninetales dashed towards it at amazing speed and tackled it back down to the ground.

"Flamethrower now!" May ordered. The Farfetch'd quacked and slapped Spirit in the side of her face with its leek so that it managed to make another attempt to fly up, but she quickly breathed a plume of fire that scorched its feathers and sent it crashing back into the ground, seemingly already defeated.

May looked at it.

"Going to catch it?" Alan asked.

Mark saw her upper lip quiver slightly in something close to disgust. "No," she said. "Farfetch'd are really we…"

She stopped there, squeezed her eyes momentarily shut and then inhaled. "They're rare," she corrected herself. "It's better for the species if… you shut up, Mark," she added in a hiss as he began to giggle at the much too obvious attempt to evade Alan's ever-watching political correctness alarm. Alan, however, either didn't notice or pretended not to; his face was now beaming with some mixture of pride and encouragement.

"Come on, Spirit," May just sighed and they went on.

The sun was rapidly approaching the horizon and already most of the people by the lakeside were gone. The kids waited just inside the forest and watched some of the last tourists leave.

"Isn't it amazing how easily you can forget about the existence of your Pokémon while it's in its Pokéball?" May suddenly muttered. "I need to talk to Lapras. Can't I go down to the lake and send her out?"

"I think everybody's gone, pretty much," said Mark, watching a couple of women on the other side of the lake recall their Pokémon and begin to walk towards the city. They couldn't see anybody else in the area.

"Okay," May replied, walked the few meters down to the lakeside and reached for her Pokéball necklace.

Then she stopped.

"Um…" she began forcedly, "maybe it would be nice if we… you know… we caught quite a few of our Pokémon by this lake, didn't we? Maybe they'd like to… dunno, see their families again or something? Just while we're here?" She looked questioningly between Mark and Alan.

"That's a great idea, May!" Alan said happily, sending her another beaming smile. Mark suppressed a giggle.

"Well, yeah, it's not a bad idea," he concurred, shrugged and took out his Pokéballs. He took a last quick look at the other side of the lake; the two women were gone and there was nobody in sight anymore. "Go, everybody!" he declared and threw his Pokéballs along with the others.

As the Pokémon materialized on the bank – with the notable exception of Gyarados who of course appeared in the lake – May hesitated before taking out her last ball.

"Lapras, go."

The giant turtle appeared in the water and looked around before turning to her trainer and waiting for her to say something.

May sighed, opened her mouth, closed it again and sighed again.

"What do you want, Lapras?" she asked finally. "Should I release you or… try to be a better trainer or something?"

Lapras looked around the lake again and shivered uncomfortably. "I never liked it here," she just said.

"So then you'll stay with me?" May asked, perhaps a bit too quickly.

Lapras swallowed. After a long silence, she answered: "No. You'll take me somewhere else, maybe to the sea, and release me there."

May's gaze flickered from Mark on her left to Alan on her right and she nodded slowly. "What about until then?"

Lapras took a while to think about it, glancing insecurely between Mark, May, Alan and her own reflection in the lake.

"I won't battle for you," she then reiterated what she had said in the morning. "But I understand I may be needed in the legendary battles. I will fight then, but not for your gain."

Mark could tell from the awkward expression on May's face that the words stung, but she managed herself pretty well regardless. "Okay, then," she said quietly. "Then that's what we'll do."

There was a second of silence as May and Lapras looked momentarily into each other's eyes.

"Thank you," said Lapras softly, dissolved into red energy and disappeared back into her Pokéball, which May shakily replaced on her necklace.

Alan patted her on the back. "Cheer up," he said. "My dad had to release a lot of Pokémon who wanted to go, and you know what he became. Well, granted," he added as an afterthought, "I don't think any of his Pokémon actually made the choice to leave out of dislike for him per se, but… having to release a Pokémon isn't the end of the world."

May took a deep breath. "I'm fine," she insisted for the third time that day. "Really. Stop worrying about me."

Then she turned to all the Pokémon. "Okay," she announced, her voice trembling a little bit at first but otherwise sounding normal. "We're going to try to battle Suicune in a little while, but now, if you were caught here, this is your chance to go back to where you used to live or something. Just be sure to be back in…" she looked at her watch, "half an hour, okay? Then we'll go over strategies and such before Suicune actually appears…"

"Jolteon, are you all right for this battle?" Mark asked his Pokémon quietly. "You don't need to take part if you don't want to…"

"I'll fight," he replied. "It's scary, but we have to do it, don't we?"

Mark nodded. "Okay, then. So now you have half an hour… why don't you just relax and try to enjoy yourself or something?"

Jolteon responded with a nod and trotted off with Letal; Dragonair was already in the air practicing his flying skills and Sandslash had presumably gone to see the Sandshrew he had grown up with. Mark felt somehow alone with only Gyarados and Charizard by his side now that almost all the other Pokémon had left; only Spirit stayed with May, who was stroking her absent-mindedly, and all of Alan's Pokémon had appreciated the fresh air and disappeared into the woods somewhere.

"Mark."

He looked up. It was Gyarados; the sea monster's eyes flickered back and forth in visible discomfort.

"I hate this place. I hate Suicune. Do I need to take part in this battle?"

Mark was slightly taken aback by the question; he had figured Gyarados would in fact particularly like the opportunity to fight Suicune.

"Well, if you don't want to," he said, "but why don't you want to fight Suicune? You seemed pretty enthusiastic about it before."

Gyarados stared at the woods where Suicune would come out. "I know, but I don't want it now. Can you be without me?"

Mark honestly thought the situation looked pretty hopeless. Gyarados had an extremely powerful attack that he had been hoping would perhaps be able to make up for the fact they had considerably fewer Pokémon to fight with this time. But ultimately, he had just been watching May have to release a Pokémon because she had forced it to fight battles it didn't want, and he wasn't planning to have to repeat that episode.

"Well, I think it will be a pretty hard battle without you," Mark finally replied, "but if you really don't want to, that has to be up to you, I guess."

For a moment Gyarados seemed to smirk; then in an instant, that expression was gone.

"Thanks," he said, and like Lapras, he recalled himself into his Pokéball.

Mark sighed; May and Alan were talking as they so often did, so the only one he had left to talk to was Charizard. In fact, now that he thought about it, he found it funny Charizard was sitting there staring into the air rather than flying with Dragonair.

"Anything bothering you?" he asked, sitting down beside his Pokémon.

Charizard sighed. "I killed that Manectric."

"It wasn't your fault," Mark said immediately.

"It's not that," Charizard said slowly. "It's more that… I _didn't_ feel bad about it. I mean, not instinctively. My conscious mind did, but there was also something just telling me 'Fresh meat'." He shuddered. "Sorry. I was raised in captivity. I'm not used to hunting, but the basic programming is still there. I guess it creeps me out a little bit."

Mark nodded, but the subject of the dead Manectric still made him feel an uncomfortable sting in his heart. Neither of them said anything for a while.

"Well," Charizard said slowly, "I guess I'll just go with Dragonair, then." Mark nodded again and watched his first Pokémon take off and join Dragonair in the air. He looked at his watch; it had been twenty minutes now. He saw Sandslash already approaching from the other bank where he had been. For some reason he felt butterflies in his stomach at this point. Second legendary battle in one day. And it was rapidly approaching.

The Pokémon gathered back with their trainers and Chaletwo got ready to make his speech.

_"Okay, then,"_ said the telepathic voice in their heads. _"It's time for the second legendary battle. Some of you got very hurt this morning, but this time there will be no air chases and no electricity, which ought to make things a little easier for at least some of you._

_"The basic idea is much the same as against Thunderyu. Remember that Suicune is very powerful. However, the fundamental difference lies in that Suicune is not dangerous. He will not kill you. He will not attack your trainers. Most of all he would like to avoid having a battle at all, but of course that means we have to force him into one. For this, we need Victoria the Misdreavus and Spirit the Ninetales to make a joint effort to trap him with Mean Look before the battle itself begins. The plan is that they will wait, invisible, while Suicune arrives, and only after they have trapped him will the trainers send the rest of you out, at which time you need to be quick to rush in and distract Suicune, because if he manages to beat both Victoria and Spirit to unconsciousness, he will no longer be trapped and will be sure to have escaped from our grasp within seconds. Like this morning, you need to think for yourselves some; your trainers can only think about one or two of you at a time._

_"Remember teamwork and cooperation. Together you can hopefully bring Suicune down. If not, you can try again tomorrow. Try not to get yourselves injured too much. Don't do anything too bold. We have time here._

_"And Mark – like last time, keep your eyes on Suicune so I can see what's going on, all right? Now, let's get you all recalled except Spirit and Victoria, and then we'll just wait."_

Mark looked nervously at the others as he recalled all of his Pokémon. In a few seconds of flashing red light, only the Ninetales and the Misdreavus remained out.

_"Okay, both of you turn yourselves invisible and wait there just by the edge of the lake. Suicune should be arriving any moment now. Kids, get into the forest there by the sides."_

Mark backed away on one side and May and Alan on the other, disappearing behind the trees. Again, Mark felt butterflies in his stomach as he watched Spirit and Vicky fade away and disappear entirely from sight. Now it was just waiting.

_"Kids?"_ came Chaletwo's voice suddenly. _"Just making one thing clear. In the case Suicune does defeat all your Pokémon… you run for it, understand?"_

"I thought you were 'absolutely certain' Suicune wouldn't attack us," Alan replied with some mixture of disdain and terror.

_"Well, I am,"_ Chaletwo said shortly, _"but you can never be too careful."_

It was getting cooler with the evening. Mark shivered, perhaps from cold or perhaps from fear.

With an increasing feeling of dread, they waited for nightfall.


	36. Suicune

**Chapter 35: Suicune**

And with the northern wind, he came.

Mark shivered as an icy chill blew past them with the wind and a being of unimaginable grace dashed by through the forest, eerily close to where he was hidden. He watched the slender blue creature slow down and walk calmly towards the lake, tossing his head so that the billowing purple cape streaming out from his neck swished back in a peculiar, rippling motion.

He was gripped by a weird feeling of immense respect, something he had not felt for Thunderyu since he was not one of the creatures he had been reading about since he was a kid. Something about seeing Suicune so close gave him a sensation of thrill and, in some bizarre way, honour. He bowed his head as the legendary Pokémon approached the bank of the lake, feeling somehow that it was wrong to watch Suicune perform the purification while sneaking up on him.

_"Look at him, damn it!"_ Chaletwo hissed in his mind. _"Remember you're seeing for two!"_

Mark forced himself to look up as Suicune bent down on the bank of the lake, extended his paw and touched the surface.

_"NOW!"_ Chaletwo's voice shouted and all of a sudden, Spirit and Vicky popped into existence on either side of Suicune. The legendary looked quickly up, but both of their eyes were already glowing with an eerie red color. As Suicune attempted to dash back into the forest where he had come from, it was as if he were hit by an invisible wall in mid-air and thrown backwards from the impact. Blood red ripples formed momentarily in the seemingly empty space where the Pokémon had rebounded.

_"Go send out your Pokémon! Quick!"_ Chaletwo ordered frantically. Mark sprang up from his hiding place; he saw Suicune look at him in surprise and then at May and Alan who were sending out their Pokémon on the other side.

"I'm sorry, Suicune," Mark whispered. Somehow he felt slightly better having said it, even knowing Suicune couldn't hear him. He took a deep breath, grabbed his Pokéballs (at first he took Gyarados's as well but realized the mistake at the last moment and hurriedly replaced it on his belt) and threw them.

"Everybody, go!"

The Pokémon's cries filled the air as eleven Pokémon materialized on the ground. Dragonair and Charizard immediately took off into the air to make it more difficult for the earthbound Suicune to attack them; meanwhile, the legendary crouched down in a defensive position and shook his cape. Suddenly dark clouds gathered in the air above them and with a roar of thunder, it began to rain heavily.

"Spirit, assume the weak spirit form and keep it up as long as you can!" May ordered quickly through the sound of the raindrops falling onto the leaves of the trees. "Pupitar, Rock Slide! Raichu, Thunderbolt! Damn, why didn't I teach you Thunder sometime?"

Spirit began to fade slowly away while Raichu started charging up electricity in his cheeks. Meanwhile, however, Suicune picked Pupitar out as the easiest target, and while large rocks were heaving themselves up from the lake, the legendary Pokémon fired a high-pressure jet of water at the pupa, who was immediately blasted into a tree. The rocks dropped back into the lake with a splash of water that sprinkled all over the Pokémon in addition to the rain as May recalled the fainted Pupitar.

"Raaiiiichu!" Raichu cried as he crouched down on all fours and released a bolt of electricity that flew straight at Suciune. The legendary only shuddered slightly as he was struck by the blast of electricity, but seemed otherwise dismayingly unharmed.

_"Just being offensive won't get you anywhere!"_ Chaletwo shouted irritably. _"Confuse him! Paralyze him! Put him to sleep! Strategy, guys, strategy!"_

Lapras let out a loud cry and released a small light from her mouth that started dancing around Suicune to distract him, but the legendary Pokémon forced his eyes away from it.

"Thunder Wave, Raichu!" May yelled. The mouse Pokémon quickly crouched down and began to sparkle with electricity

"Racko, Leaf Blade!" Alan shouted. "Diamond, Stomp! Slash, Pamela!"

"Raiii!"

Raichu fired a wave of paralyzing electricity at Suicune. The legendary howled in pain as his body stiffened up; meanwhile the Grovyle leapt at him with a screech, the leaves on his wrists glowing, and slashed across Suicune's body just as Pamela raked her claws across his other side.

"Sui…" growled the deep voice of the legendary Pokémon as Suicune lowered his head, closing his eyes in concentration.

"Calm Mind…" May muttered to herself. Then: "Physical attacks, everybody! Quick! You too, Charizard, since it can't break its concentration by attacking you!"

Charizard glanced once doubtfully at her, his mortal fear of the water shining clearly through, but then dived. _Wow,_ Mark thought with a bitterness that made him feel slightly mad at himself. _Even _my_ Pokémon are willing to bet their lives that she's always right._

Charizard smacked his wing powerfully into Suicune's head, but the legendary Pokémon didn't defend himself; he let the blow push him harshly to the side so that he only barely stayed on his feet. Meanwhile, Jolteon jumped at him with a cry and sank his fangs into Suicune's slender paw. Eerily, he didn't even wince: the legendary's eyes were still closed in deep concentration.

The other Pokémon attacked Suicune more or less all at the same time, using whatever physical measures they had for inflicting damage. Suicune's eyes snapped open and he appeared to be trying to move, but the paralysis kept him rooted on the spot.

"Ice Beam, Lapras, quick, before it can move again!" May yelled. "Spirit, try a Shadow Ball! Thunderbolt, Raichu!"

"Jolteon, help Raichu!" Mark called and then figured he might as well give some other orders to his Pokémon. "Try another Wing Attack, Charizard," he added. "Slam, Dragonair! Sandslash, Slash him! And Letal, use Take Down!"

Meanwhile, Alan ordered his Pokémon some as well, and all the Pokémon sprang into action during those few seconds when Suicune was fully paralyzed. Charizard and Dragonair dived down together and Charizard beating Suicune with his wing while Dragonair smashed his tail orbs into the legendary's head. Letal rammed her body powerfully into Suicune's side just before Jolteon and Raichu sent a joint Thunderbolt and a beam of ice from Lapras struck the crystal formation on Suicune's head. Meanwhile Racko kept slashing his leaves, and Spirit and Vicky both turned to material form as they together charged an orb of shadow energy. Diamond stabbed her horn into Suicune's side, creating a bleeding wound, while Pamela and Sandslash ran up and slashed him.

Finally Suicune regained the ability to move. He wrestled away from his attackers, leaping gracefully over their heads to the bank of the lake where he faced them. Suicune's crystal glowed and a tidal wave rose up from the surface of the lake behind him, rushing towards the bank.

"Look out!" Alan shouted stupidly while the Pokémon scattered. They tried desperately to get out of the way, but the wall of water quickly crashed down upon them and submerged the area completely but neatly avoiding the trees.

"How does Suicune know Surf?" Mark called, directing his question at May. "Isn't it an HM move?"

"I don't know," she just answered, shaking her head while staring fixedly at the scene of the battle. "It _is_ a legendary Pokémon…"

The water flowed back into the lake and the Pokémon scrambled to their feet – all except Sandslash and Diamond, which the water seemed to have gotten the better of. Mark and Alan silently recalled them while May continued to shout orders to the Pokémon. Mark watched with worry how Vicky flickered in and out of visibility, clearly getting too tired and hurt to keep it up. Spirit had apparently managed to escape it entirely by staying in her spirit form.

"Dragonair, try a Dragon Rage," Mark quickly told his Pokémon, who was now circling above the scene with Charizard. Dragonair nodded, took a deep breath and breathed crimson fire down towards Suicune, but the legendary Pokémon had heard Mark's command and already looked up. He watched, stunned, as the crystal formation on Suicune's head apparently absorbed all the fire and then, after a moment's pause, sent a blue, somehow liquid-looking mirror image of the attack right back at Dragonair. The dragon squealed in pain as he was hit by the blast, but managed to recover his position in the air.

"Don't use special attacks unless Suicune is immobile!" May reminded him.

Suicune growled, raising his head, and then blasted a rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals up towards the dragon, who was still regaining his composure. Hit by the super-effective blast, Dragonair was thrown a few feet backwards and then hung still in the air momentarily before dropping down into the lake.

"No!" Mark quickly ran towards the lakeside with Dragonair's Pokéball. It was lucky the lake was so clear; he could see the light blue, snakelike body even as it sank. He hoped the beam would reach as he pointed the Pokéball towards it and pressed the button. A red beam of light penetrated the water's surface, hit Dragonair's body and zapped back towards the Pokéball in a zigzag motion.

_"Look at Suicune!"_ Chaletwo hissed.

He quickly looked around and realized that Suicune was looking silently straight at him, the legendary's expression inscrutable. Again, he was overcome by guilt over what he was doing to the creature. He heard May command his Pokémon as if they were her own and the thought to just stand back and watch rather than participate in this dreadful battle seriously occurred to him.

_"No, you don't,"_ Chaletwo said coldly. _"You're who I picked out from that crowd. Don't disappoint me by standing there being useless while letting those two nobodies do all the work."_

A hateful thought flashed across Mark's mind; he hopelessly realized that Chaletwo would be able to detect it, even if he didn't say it aloud.

"You self-absorbed moron," he found himself suddenly having the courage to mutter. "I'll do it, but for the sake of preventing the War of the Legends, not to make your idiotic method of picking people to help you with it look good."

He clenched his fist until it hurt, not getting any answer, and then looked back at Suicune.

"Jolteon, Thunderbolt!" he shouted. "Another Take Down, Letal! Charizard, use Slash!" He looked at the legendary and added in a whisper, "I'm sorry, Suicune, but I'm hoping some good will come out of this."

For a moment he thought he saw Suicune nod, but then realized that he was just preparing for another Calm Mind. Jolteon released a bolt of lightning but it didn't seem to harm the legendary Pokémon as much as it should have.

Charizard used the opportunity while Suicune was concentrating to dive down and rake his claws across the legendary's body, and he narrowly managed to escape to a greater height before Suicune's eyes opened again. The legendary Pokémon eyed Racko darting at him with the leaves on his wrists glowing and turned towards him. Suddenly the air around Suicune's mouth filled with vapour before he fired another, and considerably more powerful-looking, rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals. It hit the Grovyle squarely in his chest; the reptile staggered backwards, gasping for air, and then collapsed on the ground.

"Return!" Alan shouted and recalled his Pokémon into the Pokéball.

"Mark! Look at the lake!" May yelled. He quickly looked around to see that Suicune was raising another tidal wave on the water's surface, dangerously close to his own rather stupid location right at the bank. He stood there panicking stupidly for a second, but then ran for it towards the forest. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the wave was rising much, much higher than the one before…

"Lapras, Ice Beam it!" May shouted.

The wall of water froze in place just as Mark got behind the trees. He couldn't help looking at Suicune and finding it rather bizarre that he had been standing in the same place taking all the other Pokémon's attacks for the whole battle and he still didn't look hurt at all. He had, of course, read about Suicune's amazing defensive powers, but never realized he could be this hard to take down.

Suddenly, Suicune lifted his head and blasted a jet of water towards Charizard.

"Look out!" Mark cried as the dragon dived, but the Hydro Pump followed just behind his tail flame. Mark could see the fear in his first Pokémon's eyes as he tried desperately to go faster and swing his tail flame out of the way, but Suicune's attack followed. Mark wondered with dread whether Suicune was just going to kill one of them to make the others leave.

He saw that underneath the frozen wall of water, both Spirit and Vicky seemed to be too tired to keep up their immaterial forms. And even while Jolteon, Letal, Raichu and Pamela were still joining their efforts to attack him, Suicune ignored it almost completely, only wincing slightly when Pamela's claws tore into his flesh and Letal rammed into his body – in fact, Letal was just now collapsing from exhaustion after her futile efforts with the multiple recoil attacks. Mark recalled her, still focusing on Charizard who was already becoming tired out by flying as fast as he could muster. He was flying very low now and looked at Mark as if to ask to be recalled just as he was approaching where the frozen wave still stuck up into the air.

Suddenly, Mark realized what Suicune was trying to do.

As Charizard was just in front of the giant wall of ice, the legendary Pokémon turned his head suddenly and a moment later the jet of high-pressure water hit the Fire Pokémon's body and threw him straight at the ice.

It took only second of Charizard roaring in pain for the heat of his body combined with the pressure to make the base of the ice wall melt halfway through. During that second, Mark managed to take out Charizard's Pokéball and recall him before he would be fatally pushed into the lake, but during that second the ice wall collapsed straight onto Lapras.

"Return!" May shouted, recalling the Pokémon through the block of ice as Suicune began to raise yet another tidal wave from the water. "Spirit, try to get back into spirit form, quick! And Vicky too!"

They tried. Spirit gritted her teeth as she tried to summon the energy to make herself insubstantial and Vicky flickered.

But the Surf came crashing down first.

The water enveloped the whole lakeside, running smoothly past the trees as if there were an invisible wall in front of them. The clarity of the water allowed Mark to see plainly how the water enveloped Spirit and flurries of bubbles rose up from her thick fur, how Vicky floated around like a piece of cloth, how Jolteon, Pamela and Raichu were floating upwards but Letal sank to the bottom thanks to her armor. All of them had fallen unconscious from the sheer force of the wave when it crashed down on them. He saw the others recall their fainted Pokémon and did so too while the water began to flow back into the lake. They had lost.

_"All right,"_ said Chaletwo, speaking for the first time since Mark had snapped at him. _"Remember what I said… just get away now…"_

May and Alan were already getting ready to run for it. All that stopped Mark was a momentary desire to have a look at Suicune one more time a little closer. It was an extremely stupid desire, he realized, but he wasn't obsessed with legendary Pokémon for nothing.

The water cleared away and he ran a few meters towards the lake, staring at Suicune. The legendary's eyes met his, and Mark wondered momentarily why Suicune wasn't either attacking them or running away.

Then he realized that one of his Pokéballs had popped open.

"What the…"

May and Alan looked back to see what was going on and all three of them stared as the red beam of the Pokéball materialized into the looming shape of Gyarados. He faced Suicune with a twisted smile.

"Finally," he growled in his language. Mark realized it was the first time he had heard Gyarados speak Pokémonish. He saw Suicune take a step backwards.

"Scared of me, are you?" Gyarados snarled. "I knew they would lose if I didn't take part and then I'd be able to face you alone."

Suicune just looked at him, the legendary's expression as inscrutable as ever.

"Why do you do it?" Gyarados spat. "Why do you go around 'choosing' random Pokémon for some selfish purposes of your own? What do you want with us? Were you hoping I'd be as brainwashed as that dumb Ninetales and become overjoyed at the news, prancing around and thinking I'm special? You don't even tell us what you want with us, goddamn it! What if I don't want to be 'chosen' and would prefer not to have been put through your idiot 'test'? Why do you do it?"

Suicune looked up at Gyarados, straight into his eyes, but said nothing and kept up the same inscrutable expression as he had had when he had looked at Mark.

Gyarados started to laugh. "You're not going to tell me, are you? There is probably no reason. You're probably just doing it to feel like a high and mighty legendary Pokémon, then, aren't you? Or is it just something so grand and secret that I can't be in on it?"

Suicune didn't move.

"Answer me, damn it!"

The two Pokémon looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds. Then Suicune looked down and seemed to ever-so-slightly shake his head.

"Fine," Gyarados replied, closed his eyes and began to turn gray. "Fine!"

Mark quickly reached for Gyarados's Pokéball.

_"Don't,"_ said Chaletwo quickly. _"If he weakens Suicune, you have a chance to be able to try to go for the capture. Wait."_

Gyarados opened his eyes and blasted a bright red Dragon Beam straight at Suicune. He didn't even try to dodge; it hit straight into the crystal on Suicune's head, causing the legendary to stagger backwards slightly. Suicune closed his eyes in concentration.

Thin blue bands of what appeared to be electricity suddenly began shooting from Suicune to Gyarados. For a moment Mark thought Gyarados would surely be done for, but then realized that he didn't appear to be in any pain. In fact, if anything, his attack was powering up.

"What's going on…?" Alan whispered as more and more of those strange blue lightning bolts connected the two Pokémon. Gyarados's beam was steadily growing brighter and brighter and blue sparks began to circle all around Gyarados, enveloping him completely in blue and white until it looked almost like he was evolving. Mark shielded his eyes from the brightness, still wondering what on earth was happening; he could see Suicune, with his eyes closed, straining against the power of the now-white Dragon Beam. It was first now that Suicune showed any signs of being in pain.

Then it stopped. Suicune staggered backwards a couple of steps before collapsing on the ground.

_"Yes! Throw the ball!"_

Mark didn't want to obey. He looked at Gyarados, who was still enveloped by white energy although it was fading away, and wanted to see if he would be all right. But he grabbed an Ultra Ball anyway and threw it at the fallen legendary Pokémon.

It bounced off as if he'd just thrown it onto the ground. As if Suicune weren't even alive.

Mark's mind went completely numb. All he could do was stare as Alan ran towards Suicune and touched him, first carefully and then pushing him roughly. He checked for a pulse at Suicune's neck and looked up, horrified, shaking his head slowly.

_Suicune is dead. Gyarados murdered Suicune. Oh, God. Oh, God._

He looked quickly back towards Gyarados and watched as the white faded away, but something was wrong.

"Was…" May hesitated. "Was Gyarados this light-colored before?"

It was as if the white had left its traces on him. Instead of his previous unusually dark color, his scales were now unusually light for his species.

But what had caught Mark's attention were the three gems, two smaller and one bigger, that now seemed to have embedded themselves into one of the sea monster's upper segments to form a pattern.

Gyarados, after taking a quick look at Suicune's body, looked at them. "What do you mean, light-colored?" he asked sharply.

Mark just pointed, and Gyarados looked down to see the gems.

"It's the same pattern as on Spirit's necklace," May muttered, and Gyarados seemed to have realized the same. He raised his head hatefully towards the dark night sky and roared. Suicune had placed the mark on him, taken him to the next step of 'chosenhood' – as if it had all been planned. As if Gyarados had killed Suicune for nothing.

_"Well,"_ Chaletwo said finally after a long silence, _"I never liked him that much anyway… I suppose we're one step closer either way."_

His telepathic voice was shaking, but Mark hardly noticed it. There was no joy of victory, no feeling of triumph or relief. There was only dull silence as he recalled Gyarados and they dragged Suicune's body into the forest where it hopefully wouldn't be found.


	37. The Crater

**Chapter 36: The Crater**

It was a gloomy group that walked quietly back to Cleanwater City that night.

They were not met with any suspicion when they entered the Pokémon Center and left their Pokémon and they heard no one there talk about a battle taking place at the Lake. Apparently it had gone by unnoticed, but they didn't feel much relief.

"Where do we go now?" Mark finally muttered as they exited, breaking the silence that had lasted since they had left the lake.

_"Well,"_ Chaletwo sighed, _"I think you should just let your Pokémon rest for now. Just… go to the hotel and get a good night's sleep, and then… well, maybe you should just take it easy tomorrow. Two legendary battles in one day really isn't working out."_

Everybody seemed content with this conclusion, and nobody talked while they walked the short distance to the hotel and went up the stairs.

"I think I'm just going to bed," Mark said emptily.

"Me too," Alan muttered. May just shrugged.

"Good night, then," Mark said and went into his room, throwing himself down on his bed.

_Suicune is dead._

A nightmarish memory of pulling a limp paw while dragging Suicune into a bush flashed across his mind and made him feel a little nauseous.

"What does this all mean?" he muttered, thinking of the sparkles that had enveloped Gyarados. _Maybe it has to do with Gyarados attacking Suicune with the power that Suicune himself gave him,_ he speculated to himself.

_"Well,"_ Chaletwo replied, _"I don't know, but we might get to the bottom of this if we can talk to Entei before we…"_

"Who asked you?" Mark snapped.

He waited for a few seconds. No reply.

He thought of himself standing there, watching while Gyarados fired the fatal Dragon Beam, and shuddered.

_I let him do it. I let Gyarados kill Suicune._

A little voice in his head disagreed. _Why are you taking the blame? You were going to recall him. It was Chaletwo who told you not to. It's his fault._

_Yeah,_ Mark thought grimly. _It's all Chaletwo's fault._

_"I wouldn't say…"_

"Go away!" Mark shouted at Chaletwo in exasperation. "Why don't you just mind your own business instead of sitting here spying on my private thoughts?"

Again, there was no reply.

_Chaletwo?_ he thought.

_"Yes?"_

Mark gritted his teeth. "You're still there! Get out of my head for real or I'm not taking part in your stupid plan anymore!"

A few seconds of nothing passed.

_I should resign anyway,_ he thought airily. _May can do it all better than I can._

Again, there was no reply, but there was no way for him to tell if Chaletwo was really not reading his thoughts or if he was just resisting the urge to comment in order to make Mark think he wasn't.

"Well," he muttered, "if you really are listening, you'll have to act like you never heard it for the rest of your life."

He sighed, now fairly content that even if Chaletwo heard him, he'd at least not interrupt.

_Suicune…_

_Did you mean for that to happen? What is so special about Gyarados, anyway? What is he chosen for? I don't get it…_

_And anyway, how could he kill Suicune just like that? A legendary Pokémon? Just like…_

He bolted upright. "Chaletwo!" he called at the air. "Couldn't you have resurrected him? The body was in perfect shape aside from those little battle scratches we gave him!"

_"Impossible,"_ Chaletwo replied shortly. _"The body was whole, but the ghost was gone. I don't know what Gyarados did to him or if Suicune did it to himself or what, but I felt around for his consciousness immediately and didn't find it. Now, you don't want me around – and for your information I was not reading your thoughts until you shouted, thank you very much – so I'll just pretend I don't exist until tomorrow. Good night."_

For a moment Mark wondered if it had really been a good idea to get him that worked up.

_Yes,_ a voice in his head answered, and that was the end of that.

* * *

It felt great the next morning to be able to finally relax and not worry about travelling to the next destination yet. Even though Suicune's death still loomed over them, it somehow seemed a little less horrible when they weren't out to find whatever legendary was next on Chaletwo's list – Mark could even imagine that Chaletwo actually cared that they had killed Suicune and that that was the reason he didn't want them to go on yet, which made him feel a little better. They took their time eating a good breakfast at the hotel and then retrieved their Pokémon from the Pokémon Center.

"Well," Alan said once they were back at the hotel, "shouldn't we fill them in?"

Mark nodded quietly.

They sent out all the Pokémon except Lapras, Diamond and Gyarados in Mark's room, and he realized as they all began to feverishly ask questions that some of them had missed the outcome of not one, but two legendary battles.

"Okay, just settle down," Alan shouted over the cacophony of Pokémon speech. "You need to catch up."

The Pokémon eventually stopped talking to listen to Alan. He looked nervously around, realizing he had been silently elected as the one to explain.

"All right," he said, biting his lip. "Um. Better start at the beginning. Well, thanks to Lapras's step-in at the last moment, we succeeded in defeating and capturing Thunderyu."

Charlie, at the moment in his Charmander form, smiled in relief along with Mist the Vaporeon, who was standing beside him.

"Figured," Scyther said indifferently. Butterfree looked at him and at Mark, but didn't say anything.

"So, well, then we went on to Cleanwater City, where we obviously are now, to battle Suicune…"

"And did you catch him?" Charlie asked with worry in his voice.

Alan smiled awkwardly. "Eh. Not exactly."

"We lost," Jolteon muttered emptily. "We'll have to go battle him again tonight."

All the Pokémon looked up at Alan for confirmation. He took a deep breath, but Mark beat him to it.

"No," he said bitterly. "Suicune is dead."

Every single one of them stared at him for a moment, and then the room exploded in chaos.

"What?"

"How?"

"Can legendary Pokémon die?"

Jolteon and Sandslash stared at him in disbelief. Racko tilted his reptilian head and blinked questioningly up at Alan, and Mist just looked devastated.

"After we lost… Gyarados came out of his Pokéball," Mark said, sounding more spiteful than he intended. "And he killed Suicune. With Dragon Beam. And when Suicune died, he got marked with that… that symbol on Spirit's necklace, except blue." He pointed at the Ninetales.

"That can't be right," Spirit said, shaking her head. "I have long since concluded that the symbol is the legendary Pokémon's ultimate mark of approval and…"

"Well, either Suicune approved of being dead or your conclusion is wrong," Mark said rudely. Somehow this conversation was all making him a great deal more upset, as cheerful as he had been to be able to relax that morning. Spirit shook her white mane with a slightly offended expression, but didn't reply.

There were a few seconds of silence. Mist seemed to be taking the news the worst; Mark figured a Water Pokémon would be more upset about the death of one of its own protector deities, so to speak. She stared emptily into space, ignoring entirely when Charlie came up to give her a reassuring hug.

"I'm sorry," Mark muttered. "But it happened. There's nothing we can do about it now."

"What about Gyarados?" Mist asked shakily. "What are you going to do with him?"

Mark looked blankly at her. What, indeed? Part of him suddenly screamed vengeance; Gyarados surely shouldn't just get away with this. He got all sorts of ideas he immediately wished he hadn't gotten and for a moment seriously considered just dumping him off at the Lake of Purity, since he hated the place so much. Then reason sank in.

"We need him," he told her. "Gyarados may be the most powerful Pokémon we have. We need all the power we can get if we're going to defeat all the other legendaries."

Mist looked down at the floor, saying nothing. There was an awkward silence.

"What do we do now, then?" Jolteon asked quietly.

Mark looked at him. "Well, Chaletwo says we have the day off, at least."

"I say we should eat before we do anything else," May said, and everybody liked the idea.

* * *

They ate lunch, and eventually, at a loss for what to do in the afternoon, decided to go out to the Lake of Purity again, both to subtly try to make sure that nobody wandered too far into the forest in the direction where they had left Suicune's body and to just spend some time trying to think about something else than their quest.

Chaletwo, Mark had noticed by the time they were on their way to the lake, had not said anything at all since yesterday evening. He wasn't quite sure if it was because he was offended or he just hadn't felt the need to say anything, but it caused him to start musing about what Chaletwo did during the night, anyway. Was he just sitting in Mark's head getting bored to death? Or maybe watching his dreams to relieve the boredom? (This thought brought up the priceless image of Chaletwo sitting alone in an otherwise empty movie theatre with a bag of popcorn trying to figure out why the May on the screen was wearing a fake mustache.) Or did he maybe sleep in some sense – submit to the ordinary unconsciousness of being contained in a Pokéball? But then how did he know when to wake up? He got as far as psychic alarm clocks before he realized that May was starting to look oddly at him out of the corner of his eye while he was snickering to himself.

But once they were at the lake, watching the crowd of people walking obliviously past the trees they had dragged Suicune's body off between, he felt altogether differently and experienced that strange feeling of being angry at himself for being emotionally capable of fooling around when his sense of morality was telling him he should spend the rest of his life mourning and never laugh again. The silence in the group was awkward, and Mark kept thinking he was seeing somebody walking in just the right direction to find the body.

"So uh," Alan said at last, "what are we going to do here besides stand around? Shouldn't we use the time for something? Get the mind occupied with something else?"

May shrugged. "We could battle."

Relieved at the idea of something to take his mind off Suicune again, Mark immediately said, "Yeah, I like that idea."

Alan looked at him. "Well, I haven't battled a person in a long while. I wouldn't mind a friendly match."

Mark smiled. Battling Alan sounded a lot better than battling May, mostly because he had a distinct feeling that he would lose to her no matter what he did.

"So May, do you mind…?"

She shook her head. "I can be the referee. And I'll keep an eye on that place so you don't have to worry about it."

Sometimes Mark was amazed at how emotionally tough May could be. Alan at least seemed uncomfortable about Suicune's death. May was just… there. Like she didn't care.

"All right, then, we'll make it a six on six match," May announced formally as they walked over to a less occupied spot where they would additionally get in the way of anybody straying too close to where the body was. "Let's allow switching for a change. No move restrictions, those are boring. Both battlers send out at the same time. Go!"

It took Mark a second to realize they were starting and he quickly reached for one of his Pokéballs to hurl it forward. The white shape from the ball materialized into Scyther while Alan's ball released Mist the Vaporeon. Mark figured Alan had decided she was probably the one of his Pokémon that most needed to get her mind off Suicune.

"Okay, Scyther, um… X-Scissor!" Mark blurted out.

"Mist, use Aqua Ring!" Alan ordered.

Scyther zoomed forward with his scythes raised as they were enveloped in a faint green glow. The Vaporeon braced herself as he slashed at her body with both of them, forming red, crossed cuts on her back. As Scyther retreated back towards Mark, Mist breathed out a spray of water that began to orbit her, some of it dousing her wounds and slowly closing them.

"All right, um… try a Double Team?" Mark suggested. He wasn't sure why he suddenly felt like using techniques he'd never really used before, but something made him want to do something new.

Two copies of the mantis split out of Scyther's body on either side of him while Alan ordered Mist to use an Ice Beam. She crouched down and fired a beam of ice from her mouth at the Scyther in the middle, but the copy dissolved into the air.

"Scyther, Swords Dance!" Mark yelled, figuring that it would be best to boost Scyther's attack power so the Aqua Ring wouldn't heal too much of the damage in between. Both Scyther started spinning around on the spot while moving their scythes in elaborate patterns.

"Haze!" Alan shouted.

The Vaporeon breathed out a fine mist that quickly engulfed both Pokémon. Mark saw the two Scyther lose their concentration in the Swords Dance and one of them flickered out of existence while the haze faded.

Mark's gaze quickly ran over to May; she shook her head, making it painfully obvious that Haze was something he ought to have expected. He gritted his teeth.

"Oh, fine, I won't even try to pretend to know what I'm doing. Just slash away."

The mantis was all too happy to obey and zoomed at Mist with his scythes aloft.

"Acid Armor!" Alan quickly retaliated. The Vaporeon's flesh dissolved into liquid water just before Scyther's scythe touched her, and it easily chopped through her watery form, lodging into the ground instead. Scyther jerked it out and growled in annoyance, staying just next to Mist while keeping tense, waiting for her to turn back into solid form. Alan shifted on his feet, not daring to make an order; Mist waited, turning her head toward him.

Finally Scyther just lost his patience and started to hack madly away at the Vaporeon-shaped blob of water, and to his astonishment, Mark realized that in fact it was working to some degree. While she obviously wasn't chopped to pieces as she otherwise would have been, Mist flinched under it and tried to get away, and finally the water turned back into her solid form while Alan watched with a worried expression. She looked more like she had just been bludgeoned by something heavy than cut up with scythes.

"Mist, another Ice Beam!" Alan called, and the Vaporeon quickly shot a thin beam of ice up at the mantis, who had only gotten an opportunity to step slightly back. He was hit squarely in the chest and staggered backwards, but quickly regained his balance and countered with yet another swipe of his scythe, hitting Mist's shoulder and leaving a deep, bleeding cut.

Alan shuddered. "Mist, come back," he said and recalled the Vaporeon to her Pokéball. He hesitated only a moment before picking the next ball. "Charlie, do it!"

The Charmander emerged from the ball and immediately began to glow in evolution. Mark realized that it would be wisest to switch, and his hand travelled down to his Pokéballs.

_"Eh…"_ came Chaletwo's voice suddenly, sounding notably awkward. _"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think… I really think you should get going."_

_What? Again?_ Mark thought, pausing. _Why?_

_"Remember when I told you about Thunderyu? The next dragon, Volcaryu – he's sealed inside Mount Fever… and it's so close by, I think he sensed it through his sleep when we woke Thunderyu. Since then he's been struggling pretty fiercely against the sleep, and… I'm not sure how much longer I can hold him back. I may lose my grip on him as early as tomorrow."_

_Well, Mount Fever isn't that far away, is it?_ Mark argued. _It would be easy to reach the roots of the mountain before that time. We deserve to take it easy for a little while, right?_

_"Well, sure, you do,"_ Chaletwo replied coldly. _"I was just thinking, you know, since some human idiot got the brilliant idea of building a town in the middle of the crater of a dormant volcano and Volcaryu's release would cause it to erupt…"_ Mark's stomach churned uncomfortably at this point. _"Well, I figured that, you know, you wouldn't want all those people to get fried. Sorry I got that impression. I'll leave you to your happy fun battle now."_

Mark stared at May, Alan, Scyther and Charlie, who were all clearly confused as to why he was standing there still with a horrified expression in the middle of the battle.

"Okay, this is bad," he muttered. "Really bad."

* * *

There wasn't really anything for them to do, once Mark had briefly explained the situation, other than cancelling the battle, heading gloomily back to Cleanwater City, signing out of the hotel and heading out into Rainbow Woods again.

Mount Fever was a very large and prominent volcanic cone that could easily be seen all the way from Cleanwater city. It had been dormant for the past thousand years or so, but about a hundred years ago, a man known as 'Pyromaniac Paul' had gotten the insane idea of locating the unofficial Pokémon Gym he had been planning to found on the inside of the crater, and after getting a few friends into it with him, they had built a platform into the side of the crater of sufficient area and strength to hold Paul's Gym building and home, and eventually they had created a wide walkway going around the entire crater on its inside. The Gym became famous and extremely popular as a tourist attraction thanks to the unique location, and somehow, eventually, a town had started to spring up around it while the walkways were gradually broadened. Now Crater Town, as it had come to be known, had gotten its Gym official thanks to its current leader Carl, and consisted of a roughly circular wooden floor with houses scattered around it and a hole, perhaps five meters across, surrounded by a fence in the very middle of it, allowing travellers and inhabitants alike to gaze into the still fiery depths of the volcano beneath.

But the journey towards the volcano was slower than it had sounded like it would be. After going through the Pokémonless part of Rainbow Woods again and climbing up the mountainside there, sunset was growing dangerously close, and they weren't even close to the roots of Mount Fever yet.

_"You're not going to make it,"_ Chaletwo told them with strained panic in his telepathic voice. _"Well, you're going to make it, but never in time to convince them to evacuate the place and get it done. I should have said something sooner…"_

"Yes, you definitely should have," Mark agreed. He wasn't really sure how he felt. Part of him was screaming about all the people who might get killed, and another part insisted that it didn't matter anymore because Suicune was dead. He really hated his emotions today.

_It's all Chaletwo's fault,_ the third part said confidently, and it was the one he felt most inclined to agree with.

"Well, how about you speed us up, then?" May sighed. "Can't you, like, teleport or something?"

_"I can't just…"_ Chaletwo began, but then trailed off. _"Well, it is an emergency… I suppose it would be possible to…"_

"Then do it already, for God's sake!" Alan said angrily. "Why have you been making us walk?"

_"I need to use as much as possible of the power I have left to keep Volcaryu asleep, don't I? I think it would be too risky to try to teleport with three people. I'll take Mark, and you two will catch up, all right?"_

Alan rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.

_"Right… nobody's watching…"_

Chaletwo's body materialized by Mark's side and he bemusedly realized that despite Chaletwo having been a nuisance in his head for so long he'd gotten entirely used to it, this was only the second time he had actually seen him.

_"Come on,"_ Chaletwo just said, placing one of his pale, bulbous fingers on Mark's shoulder. The next moment, he found himself standing alone on reddish rock and looked around to realize that he was near the end of the path going up to the crater of Mount Fever.

He carefully took the final few steps up to the very edge of the crater and marvelled at the sight of Crater Town: disorganized houses were scattered around the huge wooden platform, the prominent white Gym building with the red dome roof was just about right underneath him, and in the middle of it all was a large hole emitting clouds of steam, in the middle of which he could just barely make out a faint orangeish glow.

He took a deep breath and walked down the steep steps in the side of the crater wall onto the platform. He looked around. He hadn't seen any people at all. Granted, it wasn't a large town, but it still struck him as odd there wouldn't be anyone around.

"Hello?" he shouted. Nobody answered. He figured there had to be something going on in town since nobody was around, and the first place he thought to look was the Gym, but when he came to the door, there was a piece of paper taped to it that said 'Away for Town Community Meeting'.

_Well,_ he thought. _If I were running things in this town, where would I hold town community meetings?_

He looked around and noticed a building larger than most of the others a short distance away to the left, with faded lettering above the door saying 'COMMUNITY CENTER'. _Duh._

He walked up to the building and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came a cheerful voice from inside. Mark opened the door carefully to come into a large hall that was apparently now being used as a meeting room – there was a round, red table in the middle of it with something more than a dozen people sitting by it, and the rest of town seemed to be standing somewhere by the walls, listening. Everybody looked at him.

"Ah, a traveller," a chubby, friendly-looking man by the far end of the table said; he recognized his voice as the cheerful one that had invited him in. "I am Mayor Daniels of Crater Town. I'm glad you found the people; we always have community meetings on Thursdays and we were just getting started. Now why don't you…"

The sight of all those people somehow kicked the danger their lives were in properly into Mark's head. Stupidly, all he could think of expressing this in for the moment was interrupting the Mayor's speech with a frantic shout of, "Evacuate the town!"

Mayor Daniels blinked at him. "I'm sorry?"

"You must evacuate the town," Mark repeated, realizing how dumb he sounded but figuring it couldn't get a lot worse than it already was. "The volcano is going to erupt."

The Mayor blinked at him again, but then laughed. "Now, you cannot honestly think we would live in this town if we didn't have the volcano constantly monitored for any signs of revived activity…"

Everybody was staring at him and Mark was beginning to feel decidedly like just getting out of there instead of pointlessly making himself look even more ridiculous when somebody at the table cleared his throat. It was a short, brown-haired man with glasses.

"Actually," he said, glancing nervously at Mark, "don't ask me how he could possibly know this, but the volcano did make a slight twitch yesterday morning – no definite sign of an upcoming eruption, of course, but still more than it's been for a while. I was going to bring it up."

The Mayor looked visibly unsettled by this, but still maintained his composition. "Now, exactly where does your information come from, young man? We have a team of expert scientists in the field such as Mr. Adams here watching the volcano for us. Why would you feel so certain that it is going to erupt?"

He was trying to figure out how to answer this when an aloof-looking old woman seated on the Mayor's right side suddenly let out a gasp. "Oh! You're in the paper!" she said happily, prodding a page of the newspaper she had been reading under the table and beaming up at him. Now it was Mark's turn to blink.

"What? Give me that," the Mayor said quickly, tearing the paper out of her hands and holding it up to read the page she had been pointing at so that the front page was in plain view from Mark's location.

It contained a blurry photograph of a young, thin, dark-haired boy twitching in agony as he was about to fall over backwards. His mouth was open in a silent scream, his eyes wide and staring straight towards the Pokémon on the left side of the photo.

And despite the blurriness, it was unmistakably Mark himself.

The Mayor lowered the newspaper slowly onto the table, his face white as a sheet of paper, staring at Mark in pure terror. The pages he had been looking at were now visible on the table, showing a few more, clearer photos of him and of Chaletwo.

He heard Chaletwo swear loudly in his head. _"Why the hell was that woman reading a two-week-old newspaper?"_

Recognition had dawned upon the faces of everybody in the room who had managed to take a peek at the newspaper by now. The memory modification had been enough to make them fail to associate his face with anything when they had initially seen him, but a direct comparison just made it undeniable.

_I'm in a room full of people who know I was murdered a couple of weeks ago,_ he realized, dumbfounded, not sure what to do. He blinked and looked around.

"Are… are you dead…?" the Mayor whispered.

_"Just tell them they're mistaken, that it's just somebody who looks like you, that everybody wears those clothes over where you live, that your name is really John Smith…"_

He was going to. He was definitely going to. But something made his lips decide otherwise.

"Yes," he heard himself saying. "I'm dead. I returned because… I had to warn you."

_"What the hell are you talking about?"_ Chaletwo hissed. _"Nobody must know about…"_

"Warn us?" Mayor Daniels stammered.

"Yes," Mark improvised. "Chaletwo killed me, and he is going to kill all of you. There is a dragon Pokémon called Volcaryu sleeping inside this volcano, and Chaletwo's going to wake it up, which will make the volcano erupt and destroy Crater Town." He really had no idea what he was saying, but it just came out of his mouth. Miraculously, he kept a straight face saying it, and somehow, he was enjoying the moment immensely. "The only way to stop him is to be prepared when he wakes Volcaryu. And it will try to fly off to join him so he can take over the world, so we have to capture Volcaryu to prevent that from happening."

He may have had no idea what he was saying, but damn, it was the best lie he had ever told. He watched the Mayor nod with a horrified expression on his face, buying every word of it. Priceless.

"But he mustn't know that we know about his takeover plan," he went on, starting to get excited. "He mustn't know that I've returned, or he will take precautions. So you can't tell anybody about this, in case he ever catches wind of it, all right? You just claim that you're evacuating because of what your scientists were picking up from the volcano, and…"

"Now, wait a minute," some sensible person in the audience objected. "How do we know you don't just look like that kid who died and aren't trying to exploit us somehow?"

"Well…"

He paused, not sure how he'd convince them. His hand wandered down to his Pokéballs as he considered the possibility that the newspaper mentioned what Pokémon he owned. But they found his Pokédex first.

He grinned. "Watch this."

Mark turned the Pokédex on and held it up to his eye, allowing it to scan his iris. There was a little beep, and he put the device down on the table, showing his trainer profile on the screen with his name and even the old school photo which, to Mark's dismay, had also been printed in the newspaper that still lay open on the table.

He looked over it along with everybody else who was close. He shuddered when he saw the word 'DECEASED' written in large red letters by the label 'Status' – the League didn't delete trainer profiles after their deaths. It was unsettling to see his death written out so bluntly.

"I'm not convinced," somebody mumbled.

"Well, either it's him or he switched eyes with that kid," somebody else countered.

"A Ditto?"

"Pokédexes can recognize Ditto."

"But how could he just come back from the dead?"

People looked at him. And more people looked at him.

"Well," he said, his mind racing, "I was resurrected… by Mew. Mew is trying to stop Chaletwo's plan, and he told me all that." Mew was definitely the best source he could claim, he figured – after all, Mew had always had a reputation of goodness and purity. Sometimes he really loved being knowledgeable about legendary Pokémon.

"Well, I still say we'd need more evidence…"

A man in maybe his fifties or sixties with short, graying hair stood up from the Mayor's left side. "Enough is enough," he said loudly. "Let's be reasonable about this. When do you say Chaletwo will release this Volcaryu you speak of?"

"Tomorrow," Mark said firmly. "In the morning. We need to have the town evacuated before then."

The man smiled. "Well, then it is easy enough to find out whether you are telling the truth. We evacuate the town – I think we would all agree that if there is any chance of an eruption, it is wiser to do so than not, and even our representative of the scientific community claims there is something fishy going on with the volcano – and tomorrow morning, I will go with Mark here and see if this Volcaryu really does burst out of the mountain. Sound all right to you?"

The man looked around the room. It was obvious he had a lot of respect in the community because everyone stopped talking and nobody objected. Mark had already guessed who he was when the man turned back towards him, shook his hand and said, "Welcome to Crater Town, Mark. My name is Carl, and I think I'll keep an eye on you until tomorrow when we can test your claims. I will miss my Gym if you are right, but you will be very sorry if you're wrong."


	38. Carl

**Chapter 37: Carl**

_"I have to hand it to you,"_ Chaletwo said grumpily, _"that story was pretty good, but could you really not have, you know, antagonized me a little bit less?"_

_Oh, shut up,_ Mark replied. _It's not like they didn't think you were evil and murderous already. Why do you even care what they think of you? It's not like it matters._

It had turned out that one of the citizens owned an Abra, and it was now teleporting the inhabitants of Crater Town, family by family, to safety with friends and relatives. The townspeople stood in a line, looking worriedly at their watches every now and then. The Abra's trainer, Carl, and Mark by the Gym Leader's side watched the procedure from a distance.

In his head, Chaletwo sighed. _"Look, Mark…"_ he said, his telepathic voice pained. _"I… I know we haven't been on the best terms for the past couple of days. You don't like me. I've snapped a little at you. I know. But…"_ Mark could almost see him wince. _"I… I hope you realize that I… really appreciate what you've done for our cause so far, and… I must hope you didn't mean that thing about resigning. We need you. You can't go on being all rebellious like this. It won't help anyone. Please just… be reasonable."_

Mark sighed. Part of him wanted to just say okay and amen and continue being nice-Mark who was a good boy and did everything Chaletwo told him to. No responsibility, no need to think. Definitely comfortable.

On the other hand the past evening had made him feel better about himself than he ever remembered feeling in his life. Standing up to Chaletwo, supposedly the most powerful Pokémon in the world, and making up some silly story with him as the villain that everybody believed every word of – it seemed almost hilarious. Certainly not like the wimp he had pretty much always been now that he thought about it, what with whining about everything being his teacher's fault all the time. He was liking it.

_"I'm… I'm sorry about what happened to Suicune,"_ Chaletwo muttered at last. _"I'm every bit as puzzled as you are, believe me. I don't know what happened out there or what Suicune was thinking, but there's nothing we can do about it now. We have to move on."_ He paused. _"It wasn't my fault,"_ he added bitterly. _"Stop acting like it is. How should I have known Gyarados would kill him? I hate to sound whiny, but blaming me for it is not fair at all."_

_Stop making excuses and try to make yourself sound like you actually care,_ Mark thought resentfully.

_"I do care!"_ Chaletwo's voice shouted in frustration. _"But it's still not my fault! Look, Mark, I know human teenagers supposedly like to rebel and something like that, but…"_

_I'm not rebelling,_ Mark thought, irritated. _I'm just finally thinking for myself for once. I'm tired of having you boss me around in my head. From now on, I'm going to make my own decisions._

There was a short pause. _"Mark, you are being ridiculous. You don't know…"_

_I'm not going to sit here refusing to do anything you say or anything. I'm just going to make the final decisions for myself. You can give me information, but you can't boss me around. No more yelling at me for not looking at the right thing during battles, okay? If you don't want to see what I want to look at, then for the love of God just come out of your Pokéball and use your own eyes!_ Mark felt the rant appearing in his head without him really deciding to think it. _You know, that's what gets me the most. You're always sitting on the sidelines bossing us around, but you've never once done anything to deserve it. You're just making us do all the dirty work for you. That's not very legendarylike of you, is it?_

_"Oh, kind of like Pokémon trainers who sit on the sidelines ordering their Pokémon around?"_ Chaletwo replied coldly.

_That's different. Trainers don't constantly yell at their Pokémon if they do something not quite the way they want it, and the trainers have done something to deserve it, since they defeated the Pokémon in battle when they caught them and that's all part of the game. I mean, you know things, sure, but… you don't really have any more of a clue what you're doing than we do. And… how is that relevant, anyway? If you do something wrong, you're not suddenly right when you point out somebody else doing it too._

There was another pause. Finally Chaletwo sighed. _"Okay, look, we mustn't fight. I'll… try to let you figure things out for yourself more in the future, okay? Let's just… be friends."_

Mark nodded grimly to himself, but if Chaletwo was going to reply, he didn't get the chance because now Carl turned to Mark.

"Well," he said, "how do you suggest we go about this tomorrow? Surely you had some sort of a plan?"

"Eh…" Mark racked his brain quickly. "Well, Chaletwo is going to release Volcaryu at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Since we can't really stand on the volcano while it's erupting and Volcaryu can fly, or so Mew told me – I guess we would be best off in the air, maybe riding some Pokémon with Fly if poss…"

He stopped abruptly. _Speak of the devil._

In the left side of Mark's field of vision, he had spotted an all-too-familiar blue-haired girl sitting on the back of her Skarmory as it ascended above the edge of the crater, shortly followed by Alan riding Charlie in Charizard form.

Carl looked in that direction too upon realizing where Mark was staring. May and Alan spotted them, landed on the wooden floor of Crater Town, recalled their Pokémon, and hurried towards Mark and the Gym leader.

"Hey, Mark!" Alan called on the way. "We are idiots! We only realized after you left that it would be much quicker to…"

"I… I'm not who you think I am," Mark said quickly and loudly, silencing Alan and turning his relieved expression into one of puzzlement. May raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know them?" Carl asked, his tone of voice somewhere midway between suspicious and conversational so that it was impossible to tell what his real intention was. Mark's mind raced.

"I… I lied to you," he continued, what he hoped was not too soon and not too late, ignoring Carl's comment. "I… I'm really Mark Greenlet, the guy who was killed by Chaletwo on May 25th."

Alan just stood there and blinked.

"Mark, what the hell are you…" May began, but Mark quickly cut her off, desperately hoping she'd get the hint.

"No, it's true," he babbled. "I'm sorry, I really am. It's… I'm really resurrected and working for Mew trying to stop Chaletwo from releasing an evil dragon named Volcaryu that's going to make this volcano erupt tomorrow and… I've been undercover so Chaletwo wouldn't hear that I'm alive and take precautions. All I told you was… just to prevent the news from getting out to where he could hear it. I'm sorry."

Mark could almost see the light of understanding flash on in Alan's face as he caught on. May was still staring at him like some sort of a lunatic, but one elbowing from Alan made her close her mouth and give an ever-so-slight nod to indicate that she got it.

"So, Carl… do you maybe think they could help tomorrow?" he asked, trying his best to act natural. "I've been travelling with them, and they've got some good Pokémon that would help when we battle Volcaryu. Actually I… I intended to try to get them to help from the get-go, but I had to come warn you first. So guys, would you mind helping, if… if you can forgive me for lying?"

"Sure."

"Of course."

It didn't sound at all believable in Mark's opinion, but Carl made no comment.

"Thanks," Mark just continued. "I didn't think I'd be able to defeat it all on my own, and…"

Carl looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "You wouldn't have needed to be all on your own anyway. Obviously I will help."

For a moment Mark wasn't sure if that would be overkill. The next moment he wondered why the heck that would be a bad thing. Then he realized that it wouldn't be overkill at all.

"Wait," he said, glancing at May and Alan. "This would have to be pretty much entirely a battle in the air. We can't have our Pokémon on the volcano while it's erupting. So all we can do is…" He winced. "We can only use Pokémon that can fly. Or maybe Fire Pokémon that don't mind the lava and heat. Depends on how Mount Fever erupts…"

He quickly evaluated this in his mind. He would have Charizard, Scyther and Dragonair. May would have Skarmory, Butterfree and possibly Spirit. Alan would have Charlie and maybe Diamond – and Vicky, of course. They would need whatever backup Carl might have.

"Well," Carl said simply, "since I specialize in Fire Pokémon, that will not be a problem on my part."

"It will be on ours," Alan answered, looking back at Mark. "That changes things," he said anxiously. "That's… not a lot of Pokémon. It's like at most ten between the three of us. How are we going to defeat Volcaryu with ten Pokémon?"

"I have a team of six that would be fine in the battle," Carl repeated. "That makes sixteen, and my Pokémon are fairly powerful if I do say so myself."

"Okay," Mark began, "I'll probably ride Charizard, then, and…"

"Wait a moment," Carl interrupted. "Let's discuss this in private." He turned towards Mayor Daniels, who was standing a short distance away assisting a family with the teleportation.

"How is the evacuation going?" Carl called.

"Fine," the Mayor called back.

"Would you mind if I took these kids over to the Gym to talk about tomorrow?"

"I can handle this," the Mayor said and smiled as he made sure that a little girl was definitely holding the Abra's hand before it teleported.

"Good," Carl simply replied and motioned towards the kids to follow him into the Gym building. They went in through automatic doors into a clean room the size of a small battle arena but lacking the standard floor markings; the floor was all polished white. Mark looked questioningly up at Carl.

"I never liked the traditional way of handling Gyms," Carl said without looking at him. "It's always the same standard battle arena. They're not interesting to work on. Today we only use this room as an… entrance hall, if you will."

Carl led them to the far left corner of the room, where a metallic spiral staircase took them down through the floor. The smell of sulphur that had been consistently present in the town now intensified greatly as they stepped onto bare rock in a cavernous space lit by the glow of molten magma below. Mark looked around; they were in the crater, below the town. Maybe twenty meters above them was the wooden floor they had been standing on only minutes earlier, held up by an elaborate system of support beams, with the evening sky visible through the round hole in the middle of it.

The town looked a lot more fragile seen from below.

_Tomorrow,_ Mark thought, his stomach lurching uncomfortably, _this will all be gone. Burned._

An entire town wiped out of existence. The very idea felt absurd and insane. Towns weren't supposed to be the sort of thing that just ceased to exist one day. And all the inhabitants would be homeless. He shuddered at the thought. He had lived in the same house his whole life; he couldn't imagine it just suddenly being gone.

"This is where I hold my Gym battles," Carl said, snapping Mark out of his thoughts. "Quite a bit more dramatic than that silly old building, don't you think?"

Mark couldn't shake off the feeling that as far as challengers were concerned, it was a great deal less dramatic than it was simply intimidating: the boiling heat, the smell, the uncomfortable knowledge that it was quite possible to fall to one's death, and the feeling of being far out of one's home field no doubt made this Gym considerably more of a challenge than it would otherwise be. But he nodded and muttered some words of agreement anyway.

"So," Carl then began. "Why don't you three kids show me what Pokémon you've got so we can do some planning and training?"

They reached for their Pokéballs and Pokémon cries soon filled the crater. Carl looked at each of them in turn, stroking his bearded chin as some of the more heat-sensitive Pokémon whimpered.

"Could be worse," he finally concluded. "Mark, you will be able to ride your Charizard, your Dragonair can fight, and your Scyther may be able to battle for a limited amount of time, but being a Bug Pokémon he will not last very long. You, boy…"

"Alan," Alan corrected. "And her name's May."

"Yes, Alan, you have a Charizard too, and your Rapidash may perhaps be able to make herself useful, as well as your Misdreavus. Girl – May – your Ninetales can probably fight, and your Skarmory can carry you, but your Butterfree won't last long. How strong is the shell of your Pupitar?"

She blinked. "I don't know."

"How well can it resist magma?"

She shrugged in a manner that failed to be as casual as she intended. "I don't know."

"Only one way to find out," Carl said, walked straight up to the blue cocoon Pokémon near the edge of the rock they were standing on and pushed him roughly over with his foot so that Pupitar tumbled down towards the red flow of the magma below.

Mark and Alan stared.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" May shouted heatedly, running pointlessly over to the edge to see her Pokémon fall, motionless, into the lava. Carl ignored her and simply plucked a Pokéball off his own belt.

"Get the Pupitar, Charizard," he said calmly as he threw it.

The Pokéball split open and a blob of white light quickly formed itself into the shape of a slenderly built, golden orange dragon Pokémon – a female, Mark realized as his Charizard and Charlie simultaneously craned their necks in her direction. She glanced at the males with deep green eyes, a hint of a teasing smile around the corners of her mouth, before she took a graceful dive down after Pupitar and picked him up in her arms just as he was about to disappear entirely below the surface of the magma. She swooped back upwards, placing the cocoon Pokémon on the rock in front of a stunned May, and then settled beside her trainer, whipping her tail casually around while looking between Charlie and Charizard in mock disinterest.

Steam was rising from Pupitar's body and small orange splotches of cooling magma still stuck to his hide, but his rocklike skin did not look hurt and his expression remained the same cold, distant and staring it seemed to have been frozen as ever since his evolution. May looked blankly at him and apparently deduced that since he had no visible injuries and wasn't complaining, he must be all right.

"Hmm, he's darned strong from the looks of it," Carl commented after walking a circle around Pupitar to see him from every angle, sounding as if kicking other people's Pokémon into molten lava was something he did regularly. "Shouldn't have any problems using him tomorrow. If I were to guess, I'd say he's pretty close to evolution. Am I right?"

The angry expression on May's face had vanished completely and been replaced with a smile of pride. "Yes," she answered. "He's around level fifty right now."

Carl nodded. "If we're lucky, we'll get to use a Tyranitar for the battle, which could improve our chances. Now, I expect you want to see what I've got?" He gave the boys a calculating look.

"That would be great," Alan replied.

"Indeed," Carl agreed, taking his five remaining Pokéballs off his belt. "Come out!"

Five Pokémon formed on the rock around him to join his Charizard: an Arcanine, a Magcargo, a Flareon, a Magmar and a Camerupt. They looked calmly around between the kids and their Pokémon.

"They can all battle tomorrow, obviously," Carl continued. "I will be flying on Charizard, but the others will fight. To try to make the Pokémon who carry us fight at the same time would be foolish at best; a Pokémon should not have to try to concentrate on keeping a rider steady while trying to fight and dodge. The Charizard and Skarmory can therefore be disregarded while we plan our strategy, but if they foresee getting good moves in without trouble, they can do so." He looked around as if waiting for complaints or questions before going on.

"Now, I presume that this Volcaryu will be resistant to Fire attacks, and none of the rest of my team can fly, so their usefulness in the battle may be rather limited, as that of the Ninetales and Rapidash. The primary role of responsibility, I would say, goes to May's Pupitar, who is not only obviously a very well-trained Pokémon," – he nodded towards May, who beamed with pride – "but can also use Rock attacks and is very resistant to extreme heat, which is something we should expect to be dealing with. Of course, this does not mean that every Pokémon should not do his best. However, they should be ready to take some risks to protect Pupitar and ensure that his attacks hit their target. The Dragonair will most likely be able to be of some help as well, presuming that he knows Dragon moves and that they will be effective against Volcaryu. Any objections to this plan?"

Alan shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

Carl looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "I was asking your Pokémon, not you."

"Oh." There was a chorus of muttered agreement from the Pokémon.

"Great," Carl replied. "Now we can battle. Recall all the Pokémon you're not going to be using tomorrow."

Alan looked at Carl, his expression puzzled. "Battle? Why?"

"Our Pokémon need to get a feel for one another," the Gym leader answered as if it were obvious. "It will be easier for them to battle together if they've had some insight into each other's battling style. Recall the others, and then it's you three's Pokémon against mine, here."

Mark looked at him. "O…kay?" It made some sense, although he had never really thought of it that way before. He recalled Jolteon, Sandslash and Letal into their Pokéballs. Beside him, six of May and Alan's Pokémon disappeared into their balls. The rock they were standing on seemed a lot bigger now that half of their Pokémon were gone, but it was still no full-sized battle arena, and if there were going to be many Pokémon on it at once, Mark couldn't help thinking that it was awfully likely for someone to fall.

"Six on ten?" May asked skeptically.

"Six and home field," Carl just said.

May frowned. "Are you sure we can't battle you one at a time? Our Pokémon have already fought together, so they don't need any introduction if that's what you thought. Six on ten sounds pretty chaotic, and I'm not sure there's enough room here."

"But isn't it technically better to emulate the atmosphere of the actual Volcaryu battle better?" Alan commented. "It _is_ going to be chaotic, after all."

"That's _one_ opponent, though," May argued. "This is six. I don't like the idea. I want to be able to focus on taking one Pokémon down without having five others running around and attacking mine while I'm looking elsewhere."

"Well, tell you what," Carl said. "How about I battle the lady in a traditional battle first if that's what she likes, and then you two boys in a six-on-six simultaneous melee? Hm?" He looked between Mark and Alan.

"Eh," Mark said hesitantly, "I… I don't know. It sounds a little much to be dealing with six Pokémon at the same time." He looked doubtfully over at Alan, hoping for some support.

"Fine, fine," Carl sighed. "I will take on the two of you in two simultaneous three-on-three melees. Three of my Pokémon battle yours, and the other three battle his. Does that sound more manageable to you?"

Mark looked at Alan again, but judging from his expression he really liked that idea. Mark threw his arms in defeat. "Fine, then. Might as well. Are you going to battle May first?"

"Sure," May said immediately, clearly happy enough with this conclusion not to want it changed. Carl did not object to it.

"It will be six on six, then," the Gym leader said.

May looked at him. "What? Why?"

"The intention is to introduce all the Pokémon who will fight tomorrow to one another, isn't it? And I will not battle with a handicap. Least of all against a woman."

"Is that so?" May asked in an icy voice, giving Carl a glare.

"Yes," he replied coolly. "Or are you perhaps of the opinion that women should generally be allowed fewer Pokémon in battle than men?"

May opened her mouth to reply, her face flushed, but apparently decided not to get into an argument. "I could beat you easily four on six," she grumbled.

"No," Carl just said. "Six on six. You've already been the one to decide you will battle alone. Let me then decide the number of Pokémon."

May glared. "Fine." She looked at Mark and Alan. "I think you should go upstairs or something so you won't get in the way."

Alan shrugged and walked off towards the staircase without objection. Mark followed him up into the original Gym battle arena. They heard a faint echo of Carl's barking voice from below as he laid out the rules of the battle.

"So," Alan said after a short silence. "What do we do to pass the time?"

Mark shrugged. "We could continue that battle we started earlier today."

"Oh, yeah," Alan replied. "That. Sure."

There were no floor markings in the room, but Mark just walked to the other end of it, closer to the front door, and faced Alan. "Okay. We start again where we left off, right? Same rules and same Pokémon?"

"Right."

Alan plucked a Pokéball from his belt and sent out Charlie. Mark watched the Charizard stretch and felt for his own Pokéballs with his hand. There was no pool to send out Gyarados – and he wasn't sure if he'd have wanted to use Gyarados even if he could. The next best thing he had, then, was electricity.

"Go, Jolteon!" Mark shouted as he threw the Pokéball forward. Jolteon materialized on the floor and looked at Charlie as the dragon Pokémon kicked off the ground.

"Scary Face!" Alan ordered, and Charlie's draconic face twisted into something demonic: his eyes rolled back into his head, his mouth opened creepily wide, his fangs seemed to lengthen…

Mark saw Jolteon flinch. "Don't let it get to you," he muttered to his Pokémon despite himself being uncomfortably reminded of a horror movie he had watched in a burst of rebelliousness sometime when he was little and his parents were out. "Thunderbolt!" he said more loudly.

"Charlie, Fire Spin!" Alan countered. Mark looked down at Jolteon, but the Pokémon hesitated with a quiet whine of fear while the Charizard took a deep breath and flew towards him. Charlie flew in a rapid circle around Jolteon, spinning a wall of flame in his path; Jolteon whimpered somewhere in the middle of the flames.

"Fire Fang!"

The dragon Pokémon began to dive down through the flames, more fire licking his teeth, and Mark quickly took out the empty Pokéball. "Jolteon, return!"

Nothing happened, and Mark looked in confusion between the Pokéball and the two Pokémon, barely visible through the flames; he saw Charlie bite Jolteon's side with white-hot fangs while the panicking Electric Pokémon yelped. Then the dragon let out a roar of pain, falling backwards and landing harshly on the ground as his muscles convulsed in electric shock.

"Fire Spin blocks the Pokéball beam," Alan called helpfully. "Are they both all right?"

Oh, yeah. Fire Spin. Those moves. Mark vaguely remembered the class on trapping moves. He hadn't been listening, but the Moltres he'd been drawing had been great.

Charlie stood up and gave his trainer a nod to indicate that he was fine. Jolteon was still standing inside the ring of fire, although he didn't look all right at all; he was crouching down in the middle of the ring and tried not to move.

Then, all of a sudden, he let out an electrified cry and sent a bolt of lightning flying straight at the unprepared Charlie. The dragon Pokémon received another powerful shock and roared in pain before shivering and flying back up into the air.

"Nice one, Jolteon," Mark said and smiled grimly. "I guess you'll have to stay out for a little while longer."

"Charlie, use a Slash," Alan ordered, and the Charizard swooped down through the Fire Spin with his claws raised. Jolteon let out a cry and sent a jagged wave of electricity up towards him. It hit the dragon Pokémon in mid-air and his wings froze; Jolteon leapt out of the way, over the rapidly shrinking wall of flames, and Charlie landed in the middle, paralyzed.

Alan furrowed his brow. "Charlie, that's enough," he said and recalled the Pokémon back into his Pokéball. He paused for a moment. "Do it, Racko!"

The Grovyle was in mid-leap as he emerged from his Pokéball, focusing his reptilian eyes on Jolteon.

The Fire Spin had faded down, the last embers sizzling away near the floor, and Jolteon looked like he was in pain. "Come back," Mark said and recalled him back to the safety of his ball. He thought a bit. Was there any particular reason not to send out Charizard?

Nope.

"Go!" he yelled as his own dragon Pokémon was released from the Pokéball. Racko, despite being faced with a Fire-type much larger than himself, was unfazed; if anything his grin widened.

"Racko, Screech!" Alan ordered, and the Grovyle let out a high-pitched nails-on-chalkboard sound that made Mark wince. Charizard grimaced.

"Flamethrower!" Mark said quickly.

"Racko, come back!" Alan said before Charizard could fire the attack, the red Pokéball beam dissolving the Grass Pokémon and zapping him in. "Go, Mist!"

Charizard fired the Flamethrower anyway, since he'd bothered to prepare for it. As the Vaporeon materialized out of the Pokéball, she was caught in the middle of a column of white-hot flame.

"Aqua Ring!" Alan said as the flames dissolved and the crouching Mist stood up and shook some soot off her body. She breathed out a thin stream of water that began to circle her and douse her burns.

"Charizard, Air Slash!" Mark shouted.

Charizard flew up into the air and made a slashing movement with his wing. A white ripple of energy shot down through the air and hit Mist head-on. She was thrown a little backwards, but resisted it fairly well.

"Hydro Pump," Alan said, and the Vaporeon raised her head. Without warning, a jet of water hit Charizard straight in his belly and literally smashed him backwards into the ceiling. The dragon gasped for air and then managed to wriggle quickly out of the stream of water and swoop downwards.

"Slash!" Mark blurted out without thinking, and his first Pokémon turned as he neared the floor to head straight towards Mist on the other side of the room. The Vaporeon had stopped firing the Hydro Pump but now opened her mouth for another one…

Charizard pulled up, narrowly escaping the high-pressure jet of water that emerged beneath him. He raised his claws with a growl and raked them across Mist's body. The Hydro Pump was cut off as she yowled in pain.

Mark was about to pick up Charizard's Pokéball to recall him when Alan screamed, "Mist, Whirlpool!"

A vortex of water sprang up around the two Pokémon in a similar fashion to the Fire Spin before, and he heard Charizard growl. Mark did remember that Whirlpool was also a trapping move. He sighed. "Charizard, uh… Dragon Rage." He wasn't sure whether Charizard had learned that move yet, but he seemed to remember that the Charmander family could use it…

Bingo. Dark red flames erupted out of Charizard's mouth inside the Whirlpool, enveloping Mist as she cried out in pain. The Vaporeon took a leap through the wall of water, emerging with her wounds doused.

"This is impossible!" Mark complained in frustration as her scratches began to close before their eyes. Alan laughed.

"It's not impossible. You just have to be quick enough to bring her down before the water heals her."

Mark racked his brain, trying to think of something Charizard could do while trapped in the Whirlpool. If he flew through it, the water would hurt him, and it would probably dissolve any attempts to use special moves.

"Charizard, uh," he said as an idea shamelessly stolen from one of the stories he had heard of Ash Ketchum's Charmander popped into his head, "try a Rage."

Charizard closed his eyes in brief concentration behind the swirling water and then let out an earth-shaking roar before rushing out through the Whirlpool. He let out another roar, this one of pain as his tail flame was briefly drenched in water, but as soon as it came out it flared up with renewed power. Fire burned in the Pokémon's eyes as he leapt at Mist, fangs bared.

"Water Pulse!" Alan yelled, and the Vaporeon spat pulsing waves of water from her mouth into Charizard's face. He scratched at the Water Pokémon for a second, but then stopped, a blank look on his face, and lost his balance, falling clumsily onto the floor.

"Confused," Mark muttered to himself. "Charizard, snap out of it!"

As the Pokémon stood up and shook his head to clear it, his tail flame flared up again. Then he ran towards Mist again, but the Whirlpool moved into his way.

Mark heard himself let out an awkward yelp as Charizard was sucked back into the watery prison, but the dragon emerged out of the other side with a determined growl, his tail flame burning still brighter, and attacked Mist with tooth and claw.

"Hydro Pump!"

For a moment, Mark thought Mist had fallen unconscious under Charizard's sudden assault, but then Charizard was thrown harshly backwards by a jet of high-pressure water. He landed on the floor and didn't stand up again.

"Charizard, return," Mark said, recalling the Pokémon. "Jolteon, finish this!"

Jolteon didn't look his best; there was still a bleeding, charred wound on his side from his battle with Charlie, and he came out of the ball in a crouching position.

"You can do it, Jolteon," Mark muttered to encourage him. "One Thunderbolt ought to do the trick."

Alan fiddled with his Pokéball belt, but then apparently decided not to recall Mist. "Ice Beam," he ordered, and the Vaporeon fired a thin beam of ice crystals from her mouth while Jolteon charged up electricity.

Both attacks hit at the same time. Jolteon was struck with freezing cold while Mist was shocked with powerful electricity, and both Eevee evolutions collapsed on the floor, unable to battle.

Mark reached down for a Pokéball and decided, for no particular reason, to send out Letal next. Alan reached for a Pokéball too, and they threw them at the same time.

"Go, Letal!"

"Racko, your turn again!"

The two Pokémon emerged on the battlefield. Letal looked calmly into the Grovyle's eyes.

"Leaf Blade, Racko!" Alan ordered. "Aim for a spot that's not armoured!"

"Letal, use… use Iron Defense!" Mark blurted out, remembering the move vaguely from looking at Letal's stats in the Pokédex sometime recently.

While the leaves on the reptile's arms began to glow with white energy, Letal closed her eyes in concentration, and miraculously, the fine white hair covering her body smoothly transformed into metal. The Grovyle slashed his sharp leaves at her neck and tiny metallic hairs broke off and flew out from the spot where he had struck, but they took out most of the force. When Letal turned to slash back, Mark only saw a shallow cut on her neck, glistening with blood. Letal's blade cut across Racko's belly and he cried out in pain.

"Racko, come back!" Alan yelled. "Go, Diamond!"

The reptile was called back into the Pokéball while Letal growled after him. Diamond the Rapidash emerged instead, towering over Mark's Pokémon.

Letal didn't look intimidated, but Mark had his doubts that she could beat a Fire-type, especially now that she had metallized her whole body. He was about to pick up her Pokéball when…

"Diamond, Fire Spin!"

Mark threw his hands in frustration as the Rapidash breathed out a vortex of fire that enveloped Letal in a matter of seconds. "Stop doing that!" he called across the arena. "You don't give me any time to switch!"

Alan grinned. "They're League-approved, officially recognized attacks. That's fair game in my book."

Mark smiled. He was only pretending to be annoyed, really, and Alan knew it. He hadn't had this much fun in what felt like a very, very long time – although now that he thought about it, it wasn't. It gave him a headache to think of all the things that had happened in just the past couple of days.

But here he was now, in the middle of a Pokémon battle with a friend, and he didn't intend to let worries about legendary Pokémon take over the moment. It wouldn't help anyone.

"Letal, Hypnosis!" he shouted, and Letal jumped out through the flames, wincing in pain while the column of fire followed. As she landed on the floor, she stared intently into Diamond's eyes, wagging her tail rhythmically…

"Diamond, Fire Blast!" Alan yelled.

The fiery unicorn neighed in response and reared in preparation for the attack, but then stopped. She dropped down to her feet, a blank look on her face as if she couldn't remember what she was doing. She was starting to sway from side to side in rhythm with Letal's tail.

"Aw, come on!" Alan said as the Rapidash's eyelids steadily closed and her head drooped. Mark smiled in triumph.

"Letal, Headbutt!"

Letal charged, the Fire Spin licking steadily at her body as she did so, and rammed her head into Diamond's side. The Rapidash swayed on her feet, but did not wake up from her hypnosis-induced sleep, and fell awkwardly over on her side.

"Slash!"

Letal motioned to swing the blade on her head, but Alan had picked up Diamond's Pokéball. "Return!" he said quickly as the sleeping Rapidash dissolved into red energy and was drawn into the ball.

"Vicky, do it!" Alan said after a moment's pause, throwing forth a new Pokéball. Mark was ready when the ghost Pokémon began to materialize and recalled Letal. He knew she would lose the defensive bonus of the Iron Defense if she went back into the ball, but he knew well that the Misdreavus knew Mean Look, and he had only the day before been reminded thoroughly that it was also a move that prevented a Pokémon from escaping. And Letal's main moves wouldn't affect a Ghost Pokémon.

"Dragonair, go!" Mark yelled as he threw the next Pokéball. The slender dragon Pokémon materialized in mid-air and floated calmly as he watched his opponent.

"Vicky, Confuse Ray!"

Mark groaned as the Misdreavus's eyes glowed and a small orb of light appeared in the air in front of the Pokémon. As Vicky opened her eyes again, it darted towards Dragonair and began to wave through the air in front of him. Mark could see the dragon's eyes flick back and forth between the little light and the Ghost Pokémon as Dragonair tried to concentrate.

"Safeguard!" Mark blurted out as he remembered that the dragon knew the move. Dragonair shook his head to clear it and his feathery ears perked up as the faint form of a sparkly white bubble of energy formed around him. The ghostly light of the Confuse Ray bounced against the shield a few times in failed attempts to penetrate it before fading away into nothing.

Alan sighed, thinking for a moment. "Shadow Ball," he then ordered.

"Dragonair, Dragon Rush!" Mark countered quickly.

Dragonair shot up into the air and flared up in blue flames that gave Mark uncomfortable flashbacks from the battle with Thunderyu. As Vicky finished charging an orb of shadowy material in front of her, the dragon Pokémon dived.

The Shadow Ball rushed upwards. Dragonair's flaring form rushed downwards.

Mark stared, open-mouthed, as Vicky's attack collided with Dragonair's body and didn't even slow him down. It did, however, cause the blue fire enveloping his body to darken and intensify, as if it had somehow sucked in the Shadow Ball's power.

Dragonair's body slammed into the Misdreavus's ghostly form and caused a momentary explosion of dark blue flames. The Misdreavus screamed in pain, her voice something shrill and inhuman.

When the flame cleared, Dragonair was lying on the floor, shaking his head as he tried to rise, and Vicky was floating weakly in mid-air, letting out pained moans.

"Vicky, are you all right?" Alan asked, his tone concerned. The Pokémon squeezed her eyes shut and tried to steady herself, nodding in a rather unconvincing way. Dragonair got up from the floor and took off into the air again, apparently not hurt too badly.

"Think you have the strength for…" Alan looked at Mark out of the corner of his eye. "For our standard techniques?"

He saw Vicky shake her head.

"Okay, then." Alan straightened himself. "Pain Split!"

The Misdreavus smiled slyly and her eyes glowed with a hellish red color. Dragonair cried out in pain as small, white orbs of energy ripped themselves loose from his body and rushed towards Vicky instead, smearing across her burns and healing them a little in a matter of seconds.

"Vicky, return," Alan said quickly before Mark could issue any additional orders. "Pamela, go!"

Mark fiddled with his Pokéball belt while Alan's Persian materialized on the floor, but decided against switching. Dragonair didn't seem that hurt, and the Dragon Rush attack, which he had never used before, had thoroughly impressed him; he hadn't really realized how powerful Dragonair could actually be before. Or rather, he had read plenty about it, but getting one of his own had left him ever-so-slightly disappointed as Dragonair hadn't quite lived up to Mark's overblown expectations. Until now.

"Dragonair, use another Dragon Rush!"

"Fake Out!" Alan roared.

Pamela sprang up with an intimidating hiss, startling Dragonair as he was preparing for his attack. The dragon flames died abruptly as the feline Pokémon pounced, slamming her paw and raised claws into the dragon's head and smashing him down into the floor with practiced accuracy. Dragonair completely lost his concentration for the Dragon Rush attack and shook his head to regain his directions while the Persian retreated to a safe distance.

"Swift," Alan said with a triumphant grin, and while Dragonair was still heaving himself off the floor, the Persian opened her mouth to release a flurry of spinning, bright white stars of energy that scattered in all directions before centering in on Mark's Pokémon. Dragonair looked hopelessly up and closed his eyes while the attack bombarded him, and when the last of the stars had smashed into his body, he had already been knocked unconscious.

Pamela responded to Mark's blank stare with an expression that reeked of superiority complex.

"She's a Technician, Mark," Alan said and grinned. "Master of simple moves that people don't expect to be that powerful."

Mark sighed momentarily, his hand wandering over his Pokéballs, and then remembered that the Technician ability wasn't actually anything he was completely unfamiliar with.

"Scyther, go!" he shouted, hurling the mantis's Pokéball forward.

"Pamela, another Swift!" Alan yelled as Scyther materialized in the air. The Persian fired another flurry of stars that homed in on Mark's Pokémon as soon as he had fully taken shape. Scyther shielded his head with his scythes, wincing in pain as the stars struck him.

Mark decided to strategize momentarily. Alan's remaining Pokémon were the paralyzed Charlie, the sleeping Diamond, Racko, Vicky who was pretty severely injured, and of course Pamela herself. None of them were anything Mark would _definitely_ have to switch Scyther out against.

So it wouldn't be a waste of time to buff him up a little bit.

"Scyther, Swords Dance!"

The mantis Pokémon nodded briefly and spun quickly around in an elaborate dance accented by the fluid motions of his scythes.

"Taunt!" Alan ordered quickly.

Pamela tilted her head with a sly smile. "Come get me, Scizor," she purred, the gem in her forehead gleaming. Scyther stopped the Swords Dance, something red flashing in his eyes, and in an instant he was leaping towards Pamela, roaring in fury.

"Fury Cutter," Mark called, not sure if Scyther had the mental capacity to register the order at the moment. The Pokémon's scythes began to emit a faint, lime green glow as he swung them madly at the Persian, the glow accumulating with each strike while the feline tried to evade him.

"Power Gem!" Alan shouted.

Pamela took a leap just out of Scyther's reach, and while the mantis was turning around, a beam of energy erupted out of the red gem on her forehead, striking Scyther straight in the chest and throwing him backwards as he cried out in pain. The glow of his scythes faded while he landed and regained his bearings. Pamela was rather badly cut in many spots, but Scyther looked severely weakened.

Mark sighed in defeat, holding out the mantis's Pokéball. "Scyther, return."

He knew just who could really kick Pamela's behind, and mentally slapped himself for not having realized it earlier.

"Letal, go! Use Iron Defense!" he yelled as he threw the next Pokéball and Letal emerged. She had some burns and still that faint cut on her neck, but overall she wasn't in such a bad state. She immediately began to concentrate and the fine coat of hair on her body turned metallic as it had before.

"Return, Pamela," Alan said, recalling the Persian. "Diamond, go!"

The Rapidash was again lying awkwardly on her side, fast asleep, when she materialized from the Pokéball. Being sent out again didn't seem to have gotten her one bit closer to waking up.

"Letal, Slash!" Mark called, knowing that recalling her now would only waste time that Diamond could use to wake up. Letal ran towards the Rapidash, readying the blade on her head, and slashed across Diamond's shoulder with it.

The Fire Pokémon's eyes popped open.

"Letal, come back!" Mark shouted quickly while Diamond frantically attempted to stand up; he didn't want to end up trapped by Fire Spin again. He replaced the Pokéball on his belt and didn't hesitate before picking Sandslash to replace her.

"Do it!" he cried as he threw the ball that contained the first Pokémon he had caught. The pangolin materialized quickly and looked at the Rapidash on the other side of the room. She had now managed to rise fully.

"Sandslash, Earthquake!"

"Bounce!" Alan yelled.

Sandslash leapt into the air and smashed his clawed paws into the floor, but Diamond had already undertaken an impressive leap. Mark watched the Fire Pokémon soar through the air up by the high ceiling, evading the attack entirely while the floor rumbled with powerful but useless ripples.

"Look out!" he cried as the Rapidash began to descend, aiming straight towards Sandslash. The pangolin curled himself quickly into a spiky ball and began to roll out of the way; Diamond quickly changed her direction in the air and landed with her hooves on top of Sandslash's body. There was a worrying crack, but then the curled Sandslash slipped out from underneath her, rolled a short distance, and finally uncurled. The pangolin shook himself, but didn't seem too hurt.

"Flare Blitz!" Alan ordered quickly.

"Earthquake again!" Mark countered.

Diamond's body flared up in bright flames as Sandslash leapt into the air. The Rapidash rushed towards him as he plunged downwards, and just when he had smashed his paws down and produced a further flurry of ripples in the floor, Diamond's fiery body smashed into him and briefly enveloped him in flames. Sandslash cried out in pain and was thrown a few meters backwards, but as soon as the flames had faded, the Rapidash collapsed, shivering, onto the floor.

Sandslash uncurled from the ball he had assumed for protection while flying through the air, and although he had nasty-looking burn marks, he was still standing.

"Diamond, return," Alan said, immediately picking his next Pokéball. "Racko, go!"

Mark recalled Sandslash while Alan's ball was still in the air, knowing he was very hurt and wouldn't be able to stand a chance against the Grass Pokémon. He replaced the ball on his belt and took out Scyther's instead.

"You can handle this!" he shouted as he threw the ball. The Grovyle had already materialized on the floor; there was a deep cut across his red belly from where Letal had slashed him earlier, but otherwise he hadn't been hurt very much. Scyther, on the other hand, had been weakened considerably by the battle with Pamela.

Alan looked between Racko and Scyther for a couple of seconds, but then picked up a Pokéball. "Racko, come back," he said, holding out the ball, and a red beam shot out from the Pokéball button and began to dissolve the Grovyle into red energy.

Scyther glanced at Mark for a fraction of a second and then darted forward without warning, dark energy circling his scythes. Mark stared, dumbfounded, as the mantis slashed the rapidly dissolving shape of red light – and the Grovyle's distorted voice actually cried out in pain for a second before he was beamed into the Pokéball.

Alan rubbed his forehead. "Forgot Scyther could use Pursuit. See, this is why I quit training."

The older boy took out another Pokéball. "Charlie, Flamethrower him and finish this."

Mark had only a panicked second to consider his options. If he switched Scyther out, he'd have to switch to Letal since Sandslash couldn't really hurt the flying Charizard, but then Charlie would get an entirely free hit in and his Flamethrower would probably finish Letal off anyway since she was a Steel Pokémon.

So he'd have to keep Scyther out and hope he, weak as he was, would be able to attack at least once before Charlie roasted him.

"Scyther!" he shouted as the white energy from Alan's Pokéball formed into the shape of a dragon. "Be ready to Slash!"

The mantis charged, raising his scythes. Charlie materialized fully on Alan's end of the room with flames already licking the corners of his mouth.

The Charizard attempted to throw his neck forward, but it was still stiff and paralyzed after Charlie's battle with Jolteon. This bought Scyther the extra fraction of a second he needed to slash his scythes across the dragon Pokémon's belly, just as Charlie, with a roar of effort and pain, released a bright blast of flames.

Scyther was already unconscious by the time the flames cleared. Charlie dropped down to all fours, took a few exhausted breaths, and then collapsed in defeat.

They both recalled their Pokémon. Mark had two Pokémon left; Alan had three. It wasn't looking very good for him. Alan had Racko, Pamela and Vicky left; if he sent out Racko, Sandslash would certainly be screwed.

So Mark took out Letal's Pokéball.

"Go!" the two trainers shouted at the same time, hurling their balls forward. While Letal materialized, Mark looked desperately at the shape coming out of Alan's ball, hoping it was the Grovyle so that Sandslash wouldn't have to deal with him later – and his wish was granted.

"Letal, Iron Defense!" he yelled as soon as he realized that she was up against Racko. Yet again, the fine hairs of her body stiffened into metal.

"Use an Energy Ball," Alan said.

The Grovyle jumped up and an orb of pleasant green energy formed in front of him. With simply a flick of his wrist as he landed, it was sent flying towards Letal. She let out a metallic cry of pain as it smashed into her body.

"Hypnosis!" Mark blurted out.

"Detect!" Alan yelled. As Letal began to stare intently at Racko, his eyes flashed and he jumped skilfully to the side, out of her hypnotic gaze. Before she had even fully turned, he had jumped out of the way again. Letal growled in annoyance.

Mark was fairly sure he could remember that nothing could strike the Grovyle now unless he were to be distracted with another command from his own trainer. "It's no use, Letal," he said to his Pokémon. "Use Agility."

Letal turned to run, accelerating with unnatural speed as she darted across the room. Alan looked quickly at her and then issued the next order: "Okay, Racko, another Energy Ball."

"Iron Tail!" Mark shouted.

The Agility had made Letal faster. She zoomed towards the Grovyle, her body almost a blur, and swung her tail at her opponent.

Mark didn't know if it was just luck or if her aim was really that astoundingly good – he had seen her accurately predict where a diving Pidgeot would land after being hypnotized to sleep, after all – but her tail sliced right into the previous cut from when she had slashed him with the blade on her head.

The reptilian Pokémon screeched in horrible pain as blood gushed out of the deep wound. He lost his concentration for his planned Energy Ball completely, and Letal happily used the opportunity to slash once more at his chest. His eyes rolled backwards into his head as he began to fall limply to the ground.

"Racko, return," Alan said hastily, recalling the Pokémon before he ever fully hit the floor. He gave Letal a freaked glance as he put the Pokéball back on his belt.

Well. Incredibly enough, the battle was now even. So to speak. At least they both had two Pokémon left.

"Go, Pamela."

The Persian emerged from her Pokéball. Letal faced her, shivering in exhaustion.

"All right, Letal, you can do this," Mark murmured. "You've got boosted defensive abilities and speed and you're a Steel Pokémon. Don't give up on me."

Letal looked at him strangely, as if the suggestion was something absurd. Mark couldn't help smiling.

"Okay, Letal!" he shouted. "Use Hypnosis!"

"Fake Out!" Alan yelled.

Again, the Persian jumped at Mark's Pokémon with blinding speed and a menacing hiss. Letal flinched as Pamela struck her down with heavy paws, but her metallic armor made it significantly less effective than it had been on Dragonair. Letal stood up again after Pamela had retreated to a safe distance and gave the Persian her hypnotic stare.

Pamela snorted, about to turn around to demonstrate how ineffective it was, but seemingly forgot what she was doing in mid-turn.

"Pamela," Alan groaned as her eyelids sank downwards and she lay down on the floor to announce her newfound happiness with dreamy purring.

Mark broke into a smile, his heart pounding as he eyed a possibility of actually winning the battle. "All right, Letal! Iron Tail!"

Letal rushed towards Pamela, her metallic tail taking on a white glow, and then smashed it into the cat Pokémon's body. Pamela rolled backwards like a ragdoll, but then her eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet with a hiss.

"Shock Wave!" Alan yelled.

The Persian crouched down and the red gem on her head turned yellow as she sent an electric pulse straight at Letal.

The Steel Pokémon screeched in pain as the electricity coursed through her body, and Mark could tell she wouldn't stay conscious for very long. He bit his lip.

Letal opened her eyes, straightened herself and stared straight forward with glazed-over eyes – Mark was sure she was about to collapse in exhaustion – but then she lowered her head, her face mask began to glow, and suddenly three beams of pale energy shot from the three ends of the mask, striking Pamela simultaneously.

The cat shrieked in pain as her body erupted in simultaneous sparks, icicles and flames, and while Letal gave way to unconsciousness, the sparks lingered behind.

Pamela was paralyzed.

"Get a Swift in on Sandslash when he sends him out!" Alan shouted.

Mark quickly recalled Letal. "Go, Sandslash!" he yelled, throwing his last Pokéball. "Use an Earthquake, quickly!"

Sandslash appeared in mid-air and smashed down onto the floor while Pamela struggled to move without success. As liquidlike ripples spread through the arena, the Persian mewled in pain and finally collapsed onto the floor, defeated.

Alan raised his eyebrows. "This would be much better TV material than some trainers getting creamed 3-0 in the League," he said as he plucked his own last Pokéball off his belt and threw it.

Vicky, still rather weak, appeared in a burst of white light.

And Mark realized that Earthquake and Slash wouldn't be able to do a thing to her.

"Sandslash, what else do you know?" he asked frantically.

"Gyro Ball," said Sandslash, curling himself up into a ball that turned strangely metallic, rolling a little backwards and then driving himself forward.

Alan watched as the shiny ball that was Sandslash hurled itself through the air towards the Misdreavus.

"Destiny Bond!" he roared.

Sandslash made contact with Vicky's clothlike physical body and she screamed eerily in pain as she was thrown backwards in a high arc across the room. And, glowing with a ghostly purple color, Sandslash was thrown in an identical arc in the other direction as well and cried out in the same pain. Vicky bounced back up after falling below a certain point in the air. Sandslash just kept going and crashed pathetically into the floor.

And neither of them moved.

"It's a draw," Alan said at last, recalling Vicky. "Whoa. Good game."

Mark recalled the immobile Sandslash as well. "Destiny Bond? That was just cheap."

But he grinned as he said it, and Alan grinned back. He hadn't had this much fun battling since… well, unless his memory failed him, actually, it was the most fun battle he had ever had, period. He didn't even know entirely why.

"So, should we check on May and Carl?" Alan asked, pointing at the hole behind him with his thumb. Mark nodded and followed him down the ladder.

He almost laughed.

May was standing there with a perfectly serious expression, holding the Pokéball of the Trapinch that was materializing in front of her while Carl's Charizard, her green eyes twinkling in amusement, stood on the other side of the rock, tilting her head. She had clearly been hurt by whatever May had had out before, judging by her bruises. Behind Carl stood his other five Pokémon, watching; all of them were slightly cut and bruised, but a supply of Potion bottles beside them and a few empty ones lying around indicated that May's Pokémon had left them far worse than they looked now. It took a moment for Mark to realize that of course, without Lapras, any six-on-six battle she had must include her Trapinch. She'd given Carl that handicap after all.

"Last Pokémon," May said, glancing at the boys before looking back at Trapinch. "Now, use a Sand-Attack."

She looked very strangely calm for someone left with a weak, freshly caught, unevolved Pokémon against a strong, loyal, evolved one, and just that tipped Mark off that she had to have something up her sleeve. Carl, on the other hand, didn't know May well enough to be able to jump to such conclusions, and simply raised his eyebrows before giving his Charizard a command:

"Flamethrower."

The Trapinch was already preparing for his attack and quickly kicked a cloud of previously nonexistent sand straight into the Charizard's eyes before she had time to move. Blinded, she growled in annoyance, but then breathed out a blast of flames which, despite her lack of sight, hit Trapinch head-on.

The antlion Pokémon screeched in pain and emerged when the fire cleared covered in soot. He looked miserably at May.

"Come on," she muttered. "I checked you in my Pokédex earlier."

And as if in response to her words, the Pokémon took on a bright white glow. Trapinch doubled in size in a matter of seconds, growing a leaner body, smaller head and diamond-shaped wings as he did, and finally the glow faded from the newly-evolved Vibrava. He shook the remaining soot off his wings and looked at May with a questioning gaze. Mark stared open-mouthed at him.

"Charizard, finish it off with Heat Wave," Carl ordered calmly.

"Sonicboom!" May said sharply.

It was first now that Mark noticed Carl's Charizard was paralyzed. She grunted as she strained to move her stiff muscles, and meanwhile May's Vibrava took off the ground, his wings buzzing as he tried them out for the first time. The Charizard took a deep breath, but while she did, Vibrava's wings broke the sound barrier with a deafening crack and a sonic shockwave was sent straight at Carl's Pokémon.

"Follow up with a Dragonbreath!" May shouted while the Charizard roared in pain, spluttering flames from her mouth and in the process losing her concentration for her own attack. Vibrava opened his mouth and breathed a cloud of sparkly fire at his opponent. The Charizard's paralysis intensified and she turned her gaze towards her trainer with a soft growl.

Carl nodded. "I forfeit. Good battle. I guess we have an eleventh Pokémon for tomorrow now."

His Magmar had already picked up a few potion bottles and Carl took them without words, roughly spraying the Charizard's entire body with a Paralyz Heal and a Hyper Potion. "Use the time to heal your Pokémon," he said to the kids while his Charizard stretched her wings so he could give them a nice dose of anti-paralysis agent. "I've got enough supplies, and the Pokémon Center is being evacuated so you won't get any help there."

Mark and Alan sent out their unconscious Pokémon, picked up some of the bottles and began to work on reviving them. None had sustained any terrible injuries, so it was a fairly quick job. Meanwhile Carl finished healing his Charizard and applied some final potions to his other Pokémon's wounds.

"All right," he said, standing up after spraying an injury on his Arcanine's paw, "let's get started."

Alan raised his eyebrows. "Already?"

Carl glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Why not? Unless your Pokémon have any objections?" He looked questioningly at Alan's Pokémon, but they collectively shook their heads. Mark couldn't help finding the thought of them not being tired kind of bizarre, but it was undeniable that Elixirs did their job well.

"Great," Carl just said. May had walked up to the wall of the volcano after recalling Vibrava and stood there with folded arms, watching. The Gym leader walked to one side of the rock, followed by his Pokémon.

"Well," he said, looking at Mark and Alan. "Keep your three each and recall the others so we can get started."

Mark recalled Letal, Sandslash and Jolteon, leaving Scyther, Charizard and Dragonair out in front of him while Racko, Mist and Pamela were sucked into their balls as well.

Carl paused thoughtfully. "Magmar, Charizard and Magcargo, you can deal with Mark's team. Arcanine, Flareon and Camerupt, get ready to fight Alan's."

His Pokémon did as he instructed, three of them settling opposite Mark's Pokémon. He tried desperately to form some sort of strategy in his head, but no matter how he thought about it, Carl's Pokémon inevitably had the offensive advantage.

"Camerupt, use Earth Power on the Rapidash!" Carl barked. "Magcargo, hit the Charizard with Ancientpower! Arcanine, Crunch the Misdreavus! Charizard, Dragon Claw on Dragonair! Everyone else, use fire! Go!"

Carl's Pokémon swooped into action before Mark had time to think. Thankfully his Pokémon were more focused than he was. Charizard raised his claws, swooping down towards Carl's Magmar just as the ducklike Pokémon took a deep breath and fired a Flamethrower towards Scyther. The mantis dodged out of the way, helped by Charizard's Slash which prevented the Magmar from keeping up and reaiming the attack. Meanwhile, blue flames formed around the female Charizard's curled fist and she dove gracefully towards Dragonair while he waved his tail in a threatening manner.

"Dragonair, what are you…" Mark began, but was cut off as the Charizard went for it, lunged down as dragon flames circled her razor-sharp claws and raked them sharply across Dragonair's belly. In retaliation, Dragonair's entire tail turned liquid and he slammed it into the other dragon's body. Droplets of water were sprayed all around, and Carl's Pokémon flinched as the minute amount of water hit them. The warm rock they were standing on hissed as drops landed on it and evaporated as if to remind them that they were inside a volcano.

"Mag!" cried the Magcargo's deep voice as large chunks of lava tore themselves out of the rock they were standing on and hurled themselves at Charizard. He froze for a second, but then tried to throw himself to the side. With a simple movement of his head, Magcargo made them follow him.

Mark was startled by a cry of pain and quickly looked towards the source of it: Scyther, being roasted by a combined Flamethrower from Carl's Magmar and Charizard. The golden dragon had a large, bleeding cut across her stomach that looked like Scyther had inflicted it while Mark was looking elsewhere. It was far too confusing to keep track of three opponents at once. He was vaguely aware of Carl barking commands to his Pokémon on Alan's side as Scyther dropped down onto the rock, unconscious.

Mark took out his Pokéball, thinking frantically. "Dragonair, use another Aqua Tail!" he blurted out. "On... Magcargo." As he remembered the lava snail Pokémon again, he jerked his head around to see where Charizard was and at first couldn't see him, but then he emerged, battered and bruised, from below the rock. "Charizard, attack Magcargo too, maybe use Dragon Rage…"

He recalled Scyther's unconscious body just as he saw Carl turn around. "Magcargo, use a Lava Plume on Dragonair!" the Gym leader ordered sharply. "Magmar, get Dragonair with a Confuse Ray. And Charizard, stop the male."

Magmar, to Mark's great dismay, was faster than Dragonair. The duck-billed Fire Pokémon breathed out a small, bright, bluish-white flame, which began to dance around Dragonair's head, trying to distract him. While Charizard took in a breath, aiming towards Magcargo, the female growled and flew straight at his back, forcing his head down so that the blast of crimson flames that he released from his mouth only hit the lava. She locked her jaws around the horns on his head, forcing his mouth to point away from her as she lodged her claws into his shoulders; he roared in pain and could no longer stay aloft. The two dragons tumbled down past the edge of the rock, snarling and growling as they plunged towards the magma below.

Mark's heart jumped in panic before he reminded himself frantically that Charizard could stand that kind of heat. Dragonair cried out in pain and Mark turned quickly towards him to see him enveloped in a fountain of molten lava that had risen from the lake of magma below. Carl's Magcargo looked weak and was in a puddle of water, meaning Dragonair had managed to use Aqua Tail once, but it was not enough.

"Dragonair, try to get Magcargo again with Aqua Tail!" Mark called quickly before hurrying closer to the edge of the rock so that he could see Charizard.

Far below, the golden female was trying to push Charizard into the lava. Her claws still dug into his shoulders while he flapped his wings in feeble attempts to shake her off. His fiery tail lashed around, beating against her back, but she countered it by wrapping her own tightly around it and wrestling it down while his body sank slowly further into the magma. Charizard wrenched his horns free from her jaws with a jerk of his head, turned his neck and then blasted a Dragon Rage into her face. The female jerked in pain and surprise, giving him an opportunity to slam one of his wings into her and push her off his back. He attempted to get out of the magma, but it took him only a second to realize that he couldn't get out without any support.

Charizard looked quickly to his side, seeing where Carl's Charizard was seemingly trying to somehow swim towards the rock the trainers were standing on, and dug his claws into her tail, pulling himself closer to her. She jerked, sinking a little deeper into the lava as she turned quickly onto her back while dark flames formed in her mouth, but meanwhile Charizard had climbed on top of her, pushing her body down into the magma just as she had done to him.

She breathed the Dragon Rage into his face with a roar, but he was ready for it and persisted in pushing her down. She slammed her tail into his wing, causing him to growl in pain, but he wrapped his own around hers. She glared at him in a manner that suggested she found it extremely cheap of him to steal her techniques, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a grin in response. He was bigger and heavier than her; he could almost certainly keep her down more easily than she had him.

The female raised her neck out of the lava, suspiciously slowly. Charizard seemed too surprised to realize he could take advantage of this until she had already reached up to his neck and… licked it?

Mark stared. Yes, she was actually licking him… and curling her tail all-too-lovingly around his… and running her claws lightly around his shoulders…

He felt himself blushing furiously and quickly turned around. Dragonair was no longer being chased by the Confuse Ray, but his skin looked badly charred and his flight was weak; Carl seemed to have recalled Magcargo and was now apparently about to issue an order to Magmar.

"Um," Mark said, pointing vaguely down. Carl looked at him and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, seeming extremely amused.

Alan looked at Mark and then to where he was pointing, and immediately burst out laughing. May walked curiously towards the edge. Something made Mark look again too.

He had looked just in time, because the moment he did so, Carl's Charizard suddenly rolled over in the magma, throwing the male off her now that she had gotten him to almost completely relax his hold on her and let his guard down. Charizard grunted in surprise as she quickly made her way towards the bottom of the rock and climbed into its side, blasting a cone of crimson dragon fire down towards where he was still struggling in the magma. Charizard roared in pain, coughing and spluttering, while Carl's Charizard prepared for another Dragon Rage.

"Stop," Mark said, shaking his head. He took out Charizard's Pokéball and recalled him. A dragon-shaped hole in the lava was left, filling up in a couple of seconds.

Mark replaced the Pokéball on his belt, feeling a bit embarrassed on Charizard's behalf, before looking quickly back towards his battle. His heart sank when he saw that Dragonair was already lying unconscious on the rock with Magmar still standing and felt a little guilty for having one of his Pokémon faint without him even noticing it.

"Dragonair, return," he muttered while Carl's Charizard landed on top of the rock. He had not only been beaten, but beaten badly: his team had only taken down one of Carl's Pokémon, and the weakest of them to boot. Alan's battle, on the other hand, was still ongoing, and he quietly moved to the wall of the crater where May stood to watch it.

Alan's Pokémon had apparently brought down Carl's Flareon and Camerupt, but they had taken out both Diamond and Vicky, leaving Charlie facing Carl's Arcanine. Neither of them seemed particularly injured so far, but Charlie was swooping down with his claws raised to rake them across the Arcanine's face.

"Thunder Fang!"

The fiery dog growled and sparks circled his fangs before he jumped and sank his teeth into Charlie's tail. Electricity coursed through the dragon's body and he fell harshly down onto the rock. Carl's Arcanine took a leap backwards, allowing Charlie to stand up, and then sped towards him again and tackled him powerfully back to the ground.

"Charlie, Air Slash!" Alan yelled desperately.

"Extremespeed," Carl said calmly, and before Charlie had the time to fly up again, Arcanine had in a blur of motion tackled him down again. Charlie attempted weakly to get up again, but then fell back down, unconscious.

"Good battle," Carl said simply, taking out all his Pokéballs again. "Let's all heal up and then go to bed, shall we? Big day tomorrow, and the Pokémon Center has plenty of empty rooms."

Mark muttered something in agreement and sent Charizard, Dragonair and Scyther out again while Alan brought him a few potion bottles. Charizard looked with embarrassment at Carl's female, who winked with a teasing grin before turning around to let Carl spray some Potion on the cut on her belly.

"Well, that battle was… interesting." Mark coughed, not sure how to finish the thought.

"Awkward," Charizard agreed, and Mark could have sworn he saw the dragon's face slightly reddening.

"Very."

"Although at the same time, it was… kind of nice."

Mark couldn't help snickering. "Charizard in love."

"I hate you sometimes," the Pokémon muttered.

It didn't take very long to finish healing all of the Pokémon, and everyone agreed that it would be smart to let them sleep outside their balls before the big battle. Carl's Pokémon, apparently, always slept down on that rock in the crater where they'd just been battling, but the kids let theirs out to sleep in the actual Gym building, where it turned out Carl had a few old mattresses that they could use to make themselves comfortable. Only Spirit refused to sleep in the Gym, insisting that she sleep in May's room.

When they stepped out of the Gym building, having left the other Pokémon, it was dark. Only a few people remained in the evacuation line as the Abra reappeared and the Mayor ushered a young couple towards the Pokémon.

"How goes the evacuation?" Carl called.

"Fine, fine," Mayor Daniels replied distractedly. "We're nearly done, as you can see. Will you stay until we finish?"

"No," Carl said. "We have to wake up early tomorrow. We'd best get to bed."

The Mayor nodded as the Abra teleported off with the couple. "All right. Good night, then."

"Good night to you too, Mayor."

"Well," Alan said. "So don't we just go to the Pokémon Center, and you go home?"

"Yes," Carl replied, but when Mark prepared to go after May and Alan, he put a hand on his shoulder. "Not you. I said I'd keep an eye on you, and I will. You can sleep on my couch."

Mark shrugged. "Okay, then," he said to May and Alan. "Good night."

"Good night." They looked at him, clearly puzzled, but just shrugged and turned away.

Mark hurried after Carl, who took him to the building beside the Gym. It was a rather small house, and for some reason he noticed when they stepped in and Carl turned on the lights that there were no photos or pictures on the walls anywhere. The living room consisted of one old couch and a television in front of it, with one end of the room and a table seeming to serve as the kitchen. There were two doors on the left wall, one to a small bathroom and one to a bedroom, but otherwise the house had only that one room.

"That's the couch," Carl said, pointing at the old one in front of them. The upholstery was a kind of sickly grayish-yellowish-green color, but it did look soft. Mark shrugged and put his backpack beside it.

"Let me tell you one thing," Carl then said, his voice harsh. "I'm not buying it. Your story makes little sense, I never much believed in legendary Pokémon, and it's blatantly obvious that your friends know more than they say they do. I don't like liars. I'd have thrown you out on the spot but for that you happened to come here the very day after our scientists picked up something fishy with the volcano. If this is your idea of a sick joke, you are one very, very lucky prankster… for now." Carl made a point of locking the door very carefully, removing the key and putting it in his pocket. "But any responsible man who cares for his hometown would have it evacuated if anything seems to suggest it might be destroyed. I don't know how you could have found out about the volcano stirring, but at least it grants your explanation some benefit of doubt, and that is the only reason why I'm playing along with it. The evacuation would have happened even if you hadn't come. Don't think you've fooled anyone with this just because appropriate precautions for the situation are being taken. And I swear that if your Volcaryu does not burst out of the mountain tomorrow, the consequences for you will not be amusing in the slightest. Do you understand?"

Mark shivered. "Yes."

"Good," Carl said, went into the bedroom and closed the door. Mark stared after him, still unnerved by the speech and how easily something could go wrong.


	39. Volcaryu

**Chapter 38: Volcaryu**

"It's half past six. Get up."

Mark opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. He recoiled and squinted at the bright light above him, first not sure where he was, until his eyes found the middle-aged, bearded man that held the flashlight whose bright beam was searing through his pupils. He shielded his eyes with his hand. "Are you insane?" he mumbled. "Get that thing away."

Carl flicked the switch on the flashlight off, and the world plunged into darkness. Mark blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the dim twilight from outside that did little more for the lighting than to allow him to spot the windows. He sat up and looked at Carl's tall, looming silhouette. "Half past six," he muttered. "Right. I said Chaletwo would wake Volcaryu at seven o'clock."

"Yes, that's what you said," Carl said coldly and Mark wanted to slap his forehead; he was too half-asleep to be careful. He rubbed his forehead, crawled out of the sleeping bag and began to roll it up while silently cursing that seven in the morning had to be the first arbitrary time that had come to mind.

The wheels in his brain creaked metaphorically as the numbers began to register properly in his mind. Half past six. He jumped.

"Wait, what?" he asked quickly. "In half an hour?"

"Yes," said Carl and nodded.

"Why didn't you wake me earlier?" Mark blurted out, stuffing the sleeping bag hastily into the far-too-small containing bag without bothering to finish rolling it. "I won't have time to eat breakfast or brush my teeth or…"

"Isn't it strange how you didn't seem to be concerned enough yesterday evening to even mention when we would wake up?" Carl asked, his voice dripping with icy sarcasm. "One might even get the impression you don't actually believe that the timer to the destruction of this town by dragon-induced eruption is ticking."

_I believe it's ticking all right,_ Mark thought dully as he attached the sleeping bag to his backpack, this time making very carefully sure not to say it aloud. _It's just that I know it would wait for me to get breakfast if I asked._

_"I'm an it now?"_ asked Chaletwo's voice in his head.

Mark rolled his eyes as he put his backpack on, for once grateful that the darkness prevented Carl from seeing it. He would probably interpret it as something decidedly not in his favour.

_Chaletwo,_ Mark thought darkly as the Gym Leader dragged him towards the door, _if we're flying up there over the volcano and you tell me Volcaryu won't wake up or something, I'm going to kill you._

_"Maybe if Carl doesn't finish you first."_

Mark shuddered as they left the house and headed towards the Pokémon Center where May and Alan had slept and might even still be sleeping. Carl turned the flashlight back on to illuminate the wooden floor in front of them.

_No, I mean it. Is there any chance that you could fail to wake up Volcaryu?_

_"No,"_ Chaletwo responded. _"Not really. I'm the one keeping him asleep, after all. It's not a matter of _doing_ anything, but of _not_ doing something anymore. I'd be very worried if I were capable of messing that up."_

Mark snorted, but Carl cast a suspicious glance at him that made him remind himself to be quiet. He looked around the town and found it eerily deserted, somehow clearly more so than it had seemed the previous evening when he had arrived there. Maybe it was that all the windows were dark or that the sun just below the reddening horizon provided only barely enough light to see around. Or maybe the hole in the middle of the wooden town floor that now, more than then, provided a prominent second natural light source in the warm, fiery glow that spilled faintly out over the floor closest to the hole and painted the fronts of the houses with an eerie translucent orange. It struck Mark suddenly what a truly unique place Crater Town was in the world, and again he was hit by painful guilt when he reminded himself that it would all be gone within the next hour.

The boards he was walking on creaked uncomfortably.

_You're not about to lose him early or anything, are you?_ Mark thought nervously as Carl stepped in front of him and opened the door of the Pokémon Center using a key – Mark presumed the electricity must have been taken off the town, hence the flashlight and the nonworking automatic doors.

_"No, no, no. Everything is fine for now."_

To Mark's surprise and relief, May and Alan were already dressed and ready, standing in the lobby of the Pokémon Center and waiting for them while Spirit curled up on a bench. Carl held the door open for them without words and locked it pointlessly again once they were out; the kids muttered some brief greetings.

Carl checked his watch. "Twenty minutes. Let's get our Pokémon."

Mark wondered crazily whether Carl would kill him if they were still in town at seven o'clock and Volcaryu still hadn't burst out from under their feet in a fit of anger over not being dead yet. For some reason the thought made him chuckle, but he stopped quickly when Carl narrowed his eyes at him.

They walked back towards the Gym building in silence. Carl stopped to take a long look at the exterior before he finally walked up to the front door and opened it with a key. Some of the Pokémon were apparently already awake, while others still lay sleepily on the dirty mattresses; as they entered, several ears perked up and the ones who were awake quickly prodded the ones that weren't. Carl walked straight towards the ladder that led down into the crater, presumably to get his own Pokémon.

"Come on, guys," Mark said, walking further into the room while the Pokémon stood up and stretched one by one. "Wake up and get in your balls. Well, except Charizard, I guess."

He waited for all the Pokémon to wake up and stretch and then recalled them while May and Alan did the same so that only the two Charizard, the Skarmory and Spirit were left in the room among the scattered mattresses. It seemed strangely empty; they moved a little closer to one another and stood together in complete silence in the middle of the room for a few awkward moments. Finally Carl came back up the ladder and they walked outside without words.

"Twelve minutes," Carl said as they exited the Gym building, and Mark felt himself shiver uncomfortably. The Gym leader looked at him, May and Alan in turn. "You're in awfully little of a hurry, aren't you?" he said.

Anger and irritation that had been building up the whole morning flashed through Mark's mind. "Just shut up," he replied and didn't really remember deciding to say it. "You have no idea what this is about. Can't you save the judging for a few minutes?"

Carl raised an eyebrow and looked at him for a long moment. He felt oddly satisfied with his own daring for a split second despite knowing what a stupid thing that had been to say here and now. He was uncomfortably aware of Alan staring at him like a lunatic.

"Fair enough," the Gym leader said at last, sounding surprisingly calm. "Let's get up there, then."

And Carl grabbed a Pokéball from his belt and sent out his Charizard. She looked coolly at the two males; Mark saw his Charizard blush and look away as Carl climbed with surprising agility onto her back. The dragon took off from the ground with far more grace than a creature of her size carrying Carl's weight ought to be able to and then hovered in circles above the crater. Carl looked down at them.

"Right," Mark muttered, ignoring the surprised but somewhat impressed expression that May was still wearing, and it occurred to him that he had never ridden Charizard before. "Uh, can you bend down somehow so I can get on your back?"

Charizard crouched down on all fours and lowered his wing to the floor. Mark stepped hesitantly onto the leathery wing fabric and then climbed awkwardly onto the dragon's back, wrapping his arms around his Pokémon's neck. Charizard raised himself up, very slowly, and Mark still felt like he was about to fall. He watched May and Alan mount their Pokémon (far more easily, his disgruntled mind added with envy) and took a few deep breaths.

"Ready?" Charizard murmured.

Mark closed his eyes but wasn't sure if it would help at all. "Try, at least."

He yelped as Charizard's muscles flexed under his thighs and spread the dragon's majestic wings out in full. He felt his Pokémon crouch ever so slightly down and then jump with a terrifying lurch.

_I'm going to fall,_ Mark's brain said frantically as the dragon's wings flapped and his body was thrown irregularly up and down while Charizard tried to steady his flight. _Oh, God, I'm going to fall into the volcano and burn to death, or maybe drown, whichever comes first, and the legendaries are going to kill everybody…_

But then the movements of the Pokémon's wing muscles became more rhythmic, their ascension began to feel steadier, and at last he dared to open his eyes. He caught a glimpse of the volcano shrinking below and the gaping hole to Hell in the middle of the town and immediately regretted it, squeezing them shut again.

"Charizard, can you fly in some wide circles like Carl's Charizard is doing while I get used to this?" he called into the wind around his face. He actually felt Charizard nod through the muscle movements in his neck. It was a weird sensation.

Charizard smoothly adjusted his flight to be horizontal and after a minute of regular, rhythmic forward-flight, the feeling that he was about to fall had subdued a little, enough for Mark to dare to open his eyes again. Learning from his past mistakes, he resisted the urge to look down and looked at Carl, May and Alan instead. They were all hovering on their Pokémon around the same plane as he was.

"Pokémon out," Carl barked, taking out his own Pokéballs and throwing them down towards the crater. Alan took out two of his; Vicky came out of one to hover beside her trainer while the other, presumably containing Diamond, fell down towards the ground. May sent out her Butterfree and newly-evolved Vibrava to fly beside her while the third ball fell down to let Pupitar join Spirit. Mark got out Dragonair and Scyther's balls and sent them out to fly by Charizard's side.

"Five minutes," Carl said, looking at his watch, and Mark couldn't help being briefly envious of how easily Carl could hold himself still on his Charizard's back without having to hold on to her neck with more force than would have been necessary to strangle a human being. "I don't assume you know which clock Chaletwo goes by."

Mark didn't dignify that with an answer. He was feeling a little distracted. Something seemed to be missing before they could actually start.

_Chaletwo's pep talk,_ he realized and grinned to himself, mentally prodding at the part of his brain that Chaletwo was residing in.

_"With him around?"_ Chaletwo responded, and Mark knew he meant Carl.

It was a good point. Since supposedly Chaletwo could only communicate either privately with Mark or by sending out a local psychic signal that everyone in the vicinity could hear, it would be a bit difficult for him to make any sort of a speech. Mark sighed.

He'd have to do it himself.

"All right," he said and cleared his throat. Carl looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"So this is it. Volcaryu is a – a fire dragon. And he's powerful. So we all have to work together to bring him down. Try to take the other Pokémon into account while you fight. And, uh…"

He looked around, first at Alan, then at May, then at all the flying Pokémon (he was still not going to look down if he could help it), and then finally at Carl. The Gym leader was observing him with calm interest.

"Right. And Pupitar. Try to support Pupitar. And, uh, all you guys down there, you should get on the edges of the actual crater on the outside of the volcano if you aren't there already if you don't want to get caught in the eruption."

He looked awkwardly at everyone. He was increasingly realizing that he sucked at pep talks, but for some reason the fact he was doing it felt strangely good at the same time.

"All right, then. Do your best, and… we can do this."

He saw Alan nod and smile in encouragement and felt a little warmer, despite knowing that he could have been the worst speaker in the world and Alan would still have done that.

"One minute," said Carl. They waited and Mark frantically went over everything he remembered about Fire Pokémon in his head. This was so crazy. What would the eruption be like?

"Ten," said Carl, "nine, eight…"

_Chaletwo, be ready,_ Mark thought.

"…five, four, three, two, one…"

Carl looked up. They waited for a few more seconds. Nothing happened.

"Well?" asked the Gym leader. "Where's your Volcaryu?"

"I don't know," Mark said, reaching for Chaletwo in his mind. He was feeling more angry than anything else for some bizarre reason.

_"He's awake just fine,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"But I mean, I can't make him come out if he doesn't feel like it. I assumed he'd…"_

"Hell with it," Mark hissed. He wasn't sure what it was that made him think of it, much less go ahead and do it, but he whipped out his Pokédex and began pressing buttons.

_"What do you think you're…?"_

"Thunderyu, GO!" Mark shouted, folding his Pokédex as he threw one of his Pokéballs forward.

May and Alan stared at him as if he were insane, which he probably was, come to think of it. He watched the white shape from the Pokéball form into a slender dragon with broad wings, stunned by what an insanely risky thing he had just dared to do.

The light faded from Thunderyu's form, and the dragon didn't as much as look at his captors. Instead, his eyes stared transfixed at the crater straight below him while he flapped his golden wings with slow graceful movements that somehow made Mark think of heartbeat.

There was a deep rumble in the depths of the volcano.

_"Are you mad?"_ Chaletwo hissed. _"Recall him before Volcaryu gets to him, or they'll tear one another apart and wipe us out as collateral damage before we can even blink!"_

"Not yet," Mark muttered, squeezing the maximized Pokéball in his hand. There was another roar from within the volcano below, more powerful than the first. Thunderyu's eyes, which had begun to wander and notice the humans' presence, were instantly fixed back on the crater, and the dragon let out a wild, screeching cry of excitement, daring the creature in the volcano to break out of its prison.

Mark looked briefly at Carl, who was watching Thunderyu in disturbed fascination. Alan looked terrified. Even May was a little pale as she watched the legendary Pokémon so close by. Above them, dark clouds were already beginning to gather in obedient response to Thunderyu's presence.

There was another deep roar from below, laced with poisonous loathing as Volcaryu recognized the challenge of his nemesis. There was also a much deeper, somehow more terrifying rumble from the volcano itself.

Mark couldn't help it. He looked down.

The glow in the hole in the middle of town was much brighter now, and it took a second for Mark to realize that it was because the lava level had risen – and it was still rushing upwards with unsettling speed. He saw the floor begin to crumble as the heat vaporized the support beams below it, seconds before molten lava spluttered out through the hole, shattering the wood into burning splinters that crumbled into ash in the air. The sheer destructive power of it was terrifying but fascinating; Mark couldn't look away as fiery magma enveloped the Gym building and it began to sink and melt. The wooden houses all around had turned into a blazing inferno whose ashes were crumbling into the magma in a matter of seconds. He could see the lava finding its way through every crevice to flow down the sides of the volcano and the Pokémon hurtling out of the way while the lava level began to sink again.

Then suddenly the magma was rushing back upwards, and a dark shape burst out of the middle of it, sending splatters of lava flying in every direction as the creature roared with hatred and headed straight up towards Thunderyu. The electric dragon cried out in glee and swooped downwards to meet it.

"Return!" Mark yelled, although his voice could hardly be heard, pointed the Pokéball at Thunderyu and pressed the button. A red beam of light shot out of the ball, hitting the descending dragon's back.

Thunderyu cried out in surprise as his form began to dissolve into translucent red energy. Mark felt the Ultra Ball shake in his hand as the dragon strained madly against the power that was pulling him into it while the piercing roar garbled into an incoherent mess of sound waves. He held the ball firmly in his sweating hands and prayed that what they were always told about Pokéball beams being impossible to escape once the Pokémon had been caught and hit by the beam was true.

The ball stopped shaking, Thunderyu let out a last, distorted cry of frustration and finally vanished into the Pokéball. Mark replaced it on his belt and somehow it took him a second to remember that there was a whole battle yet to be done.

He jerked his head back towards Volcaryu, who had now flown up to the same height as they were and was looking frantically around for any traces of the other dragon. Mark couldn't help thinking, in the split second he spent taking in the sight of him visually, that Volcaryu was nowhere near the creature of grace that Thunderyu was, but he was bigger and bulkier and at least ten times more frightening. His muscular body was covered with dark red scales and some larger plates of black armor, and coupled with the twisted horns and pointed snout, the color scheme made him look positively demonic. The relatively small, black wings really shouldn't have been able to keep its weight aloft, but somehow they did.

Volcaryu turned his head towards Mark, his eyes shining with nothing less than psychotic bloodlust, and apparently decided to give up looking for Thunderyu for the moment and take his frustration out on the Pokémon flying around him instead.

Charizard swooped upwards, and Mark screamed as he narrowly avoided falling off by clinging on to his Pokémon's neck. Just below them he could see a tongue of bright flames erupting from Volcaryu's mouth and enveloping the spot they'd been at only seconds earlier. He shivered. "Pokémon, start attacking him already!" he shouted as he tried to steady himself better on Charizard's back. He saw the other flying Pokémon scatter out of Volcaryu's way as the dragon turned around to attack them.

"Magcargo, Ancientpower!" he heard Carl bark somewhere behind him. Below them, chunks of glowing rock tore themselves out of the crater's edge, making way for more lava to pour our down the sides of the volcano as the boulders smashed into Volcaryu's body, tossing him off course from where he was chasing after May on her Skarmory. The dragon cried out in pain and turned sharply towards the crater instead while the metallic vulture turned back around and tried to stay still in the air.

"Pupitar, Rock Slide!" May shouted from the bird's back. "And Spirit, use Curse!"

The Ninetales on the edge of the crater looked up at Volcaryu as her eyes began to glow bright red – but then Volcaryu roared, lava rushed upwards again, and it began to spill violently over the edge of the crater while globs of it were sent flying through the air. Charlie swooped out of the way of a splatter of magma, narrowly saving Alan from being hit by it, while an entire flood burst out on Spirit's side of the mountain, enveloping her and disrupting her concentration as she tried desperately to fight her way out of the molten rock. May quickly grabbed a Pokéball and recalled her.

Mark tore his eyes away from the Pokémon below and looked at Volcaryu again. Satisfied with the distraction that the eruption had provided for the Pokémon on the volcano, he turned to the humans again, this time looking at Carl. The Gym leader's Charizard growled threateningly, and the taunt seemed to draw Volcaryu's attention well enough for the other Pokémon to finally dare to approach and attack.

Scyther darted towards the dragon with both of his scythes raised and glowing with a dark aura while Dragonair flared up with blue fire and zoomed in the same direction. May's Butterfree began to glow purple. The first attack to actually hit Volcaryu was Vicky's Shadow Ball that smashed into the dragon's head while he was gathering flames in his throat; he roared and turned sharply around, realizing too late that he was being attacked from all sides.

His head began to glow with the same purple that Butterfree was, and he screeched in pain, momentarily unable to move, which gave the other Pokémon the chance to strike.

Scyther drove his scythes at Volcaryu's underbelly, but it was apparently pretty strongly armoured and the blades barely even left a mark. Scyther quickly retreated back to Mark's side to avoid being attacked in retaliation while Dragonair smashed his fiery body into the much larger dragon's side, causing Volcaryu to let out yet another roar of pain. He was shaking the Psychic off now.

"Dragonbreath, Vibrava!" May yelled.

"Diamond, use Bounce!" Alan shouted.

"Scyther, Swords Dance!" Mark blurted out. "Dragonair, use another Dragon Rush!"

Scyther began sharpening his scythes in a peculiar dance in mid-air while Dragonair flared blue again, but meanwhile, Alan's Rapidash leapt up towards Volcaryu in a humongous leap as she neighed ferociously. Volcaryu turned around to inspect the noise just as she smashed into his side, throwing him a bit downwards.

Mark knew that Volcaryu was still being a bit slow and hadn't quite realized that all of the creatures around him were actually there to attack him and that as soon as the dragon had figured that out, he would become a lot more aggressive, and this was where he realized it. Volcaryu roared and spewed a column of flame towards May and her Butterfree; Skarmory swooped quickly out of the way, but Butterfree wasn't as fast a flier and was caught in the blast. May recalled her without words while her Vibrava fired a cone of sparkly flames at the legendary Pokémon and Dragonair smashed into his other side.

"Camerupt, use a Rock Slide!" came Carl's barking voice. "Another Ancientpower, Magcargo! Magmar, Confuse Ray! Flareon, use Helping Hand to assist Magcargo! Arcanine, Extremespeed!"

"Everybody, another synchronized assault!" Mark screamed, and Scyther, Dragonair and Diamond all rushed towards Volcaryu again just as Carl's Arcanine shot into the air at supernatural speed and smashed into Volcaryu's body. Mark eyed Vicky charging up a Shadow Ball. They were actually not doing too bad this time…

And just as the thought crossed his mind, Volcaryu let out a deep roar and his entire body burst into a humongous sphere of white-hot flames. All the Pokémon that were closing up on Volcaryu were caught in the inferno and screamed in collective pain as the blazing heat scorched them; Mark stared in horror as even the boulders that Magcargo and Camerupt had summoned were literally melting in mid-air before they could reach the dragon Pokémon, sending splatters of glowing magma flying all around so that the three Charizard and Skarmory had to recoil to a safer distance with their riders (Mark's stomach took an uncomfortable lurch as he very nearly fell off Charizard's back at the unexpected movement). He saw Scyther, his armor blackened and charred, fall limply downwards before ever reaching the legendary Pokémon, and quickly recalled him back into his Pokéball. Dragonair managed to actually deliver his attack, if with rather less power than otherwise, but Mark could see his skin flaking by the second in such close vicinity of the source of the heat, and within seconds Dragonair was unconscious as well and had to be returned to the safety of his Pokéball. He saw Diamond swinging her horn at Volcaryu, but she missed; however, she actually didn't seem at all hurt, and in fact her flames were burning brighter than before if anything as she descended back towards the crater.

The fireball from around Volcaryu dissolved and the dragon looked a little tired after having kept it up for so long, but still immediately allowed his body to flare up in new fire, this time blue dragon flames, and dove straight at May's Vibrava.

"Dodge!" May yelled from the back of her Skarmory, but the Pokémon just screeched in panic, seemingly frozen with fear, and when Volcaryu smashed his heavy body into him, he didn't even stand a chance. Vibrava was sent flying through the air, enveloped in blue flames, and May silently recalled him while Volcaryu's still flaring form turned downwards to the part of the crater wall where Carl's Pokémon and Diamond were standing.

"Get out of the way!" Alan and Carl shouted simultaneously, and Diamond was quick to leap over Volcaryu's body and land on the other side of the crater while Carl's Arcanine and Flareon ran along the edge to either side, but Camerupt and Magcargo weren't fast enough to get away and Magmar had apparently decided to sacrifice himself so that he could form another Confuse Ray as a distraction.

"Magmar, don't…" Carl began, but then Volcaryu's body rammed into all of the three Pokémon on the crater's edge, enveloped all of them in dragon flames and knocked them flying down the side of the mountain. Carl quickly took out their Pokéballs and recalled them. His Charizard growled.

The flames on Volcaryu's body died down and the dragon shook his head to clear it before flying back upwards and heading towards Vicky.

"Grudge!" Alan shouted, and the Misdreavus's eyes glowed purple while Volcaryu approached her, opening his jaws wide. As the dragon snapped them around the Ghost Pokémon and shook her violently around, she let out a shrill scream of pain, and Alan recalled her. Volcaryu briefly shuddered and closed his mouth. If Mark remembered his battling class correctly, Grudge was supposed to give him an aversion to the move that had finished Vicky, but he couldn't help thinking that preventing Volcaryu from using Crunch wasn't much of an improvement on their situation. By now he was really getting worried. Only a minute ago it had actually seemed like they were about to win. Now Volcaryu had brought down most of their Pokémon within the space of a few attacks.

"Where's Pupitar?" May suddenly yelled, looking frantically around the crater below her. Mark looked down as well (it fleetingly occurred to him that flying was in fact surprisingly easy to get used to) and indeed he couldn't see the pupa anywhere. Carl turned his head sharply down towards the volcano to scan its sides. Mark was vaguely aware of Diamond leaping up to ram her body into Volcaryu's while the dragon countered with a blast of sparkly flames.

"Arcanine, Flareon, look around the volcano and find Pupitar!" Carl barked. The two Pokémon nodded and began running up and down the sides of the mountain, avoiding the streams of magma still flowing down from the crater.

"Diamond is paralyzed!" Alan shouted. Mark looked where he was pointing and saw that Diamond was standing stiffly on the brink of the crater, her eyes wide with fear while Volcaryu, whose body was now covered with blue flames again, was about to smash into her. Mark looked quickly around and realized in panic that aside from her and the missing Pupitar, Carl's two remaining Pokémon were all they had.

"Come on, Pupitar!" May screamed down from her Skarmory's back while Diamond was knocked over the side of the mountain and Alan recalled her back to her Pokéball. "Are you hiding? Scared of Volcaryu? What is this supposed to be? You were meant to be the most important Pokémon in this battle, and then you just disappear before… before you even pull off a single attack! Come here and make yourself useful!"

Mark could see Alan wince at her words while Volcaryu swooped down towards Carl's Flareon; the Arcanine leapt up in a blur to knock the dragon Pokémon off his path, but was instead the target of Volcaryu's terrifyingly powerful dragon flames. Carl recalled him, giving his Flareon a worried look.

Then there was a rumbling roar from the crater, and Mark's first, crazy thought was that somehow there was another Volcaryu coming, but of course he realized as soon as his common sense kicked in that it could only be…

A reptilian head burst out of the magma by the crater wall and roared, followed by the rest of the body of a red-hot Tyranitar crawling up from the bowl of lava.

Mark goggled at him – had he actually been buried in magma since the beginning of the battle? How had he breathed? He wondered momentarily if Pupitar even needed to breathe very often. Perhaps the pain had just now brought him over the edge to evolution, giving him the arms that he'd needed to climb up.

May stared at her Pokémon in surprise that suddenly turned into triumphant admiration as a grin broke out on her face. "YES! Tyranitar, Stone Edge!"

But Volcaryu had already noticed the Pokémon that had emerged from his crater, and the flames enveloping his body intensified as he roared and swooped straight down towards the exhausted Tyranitar who was struggling to concentrate…

"Flareon, Helping Hand!"

The Gym leader's last Pokémon glowed white as he ran towards May's final and placed his paw on his leg, and with a cry of "Flare!", he managed to give Tyranitar the power boost that he needed. With a triumphant roar, the dinosaurian Pokémon raised his arms, and chunks of rock by the two Pokémon's sides ripped themselves loose from the crater wall and shot straight upwards, hitting the diving Volcaryu at a great speed and smashing him up towards the sky. Carl's Charizard swerved out of the way while the legendary Pokémon was thrown up past them, roaring in agony.

An Ultra Ball flew through the air, hit the falling dragon and sucked him inside before falling towards the ground. Mark's heart jumped in excitement as Charizard dived down after it. He could see the ball on the ground wobble once, twice, thrice…

And it stilled with a confirming ping.

_"YES!"_ came Chaletwo's voice in Mark's head; he had almost forgotten about Chaletwo's existence after he'd been silent for the whole battle.

Charizard landed on the ground and Mark almost jumped off his back to pick up the Pokéball. "We got him!" he shouted and held it up as he watched the other two Charizard and the Skarmory land and their riders step down from their backs. May replaced a ball on her Pokéball necklace, presumably Tyranitar's, while Mark could see the flow of lava down the mountainside coming to a halt as the magma presumably retreated back under the Earth's crust. He found himself laughing stupidly in glee.

Carl walked up to him and extended his hand towards the Pokéball in Mark's hand. "Well done," he said in satisfaction, nodding towards May before looking back at Mark. "So it turns out you weren't lying after all. I suppose I owe you an apology. Now give me that."

Mark lowered the ball quickly; the adrenaline rush was quickly wearing off. "What? Why?"

"Because I threw that ball."

Mark stared. He had assumed May or Alan had thrown the Ultra Ball. Definitely not Carl. Had he even known that they needed to capture the dragon? "You… you can't just take Volcaryu!" he blurted out. "He'd never battle for you!"

Carl looked at the Pokéball. "Make it battle for me?" he said, his voice harsh and disdainful. "Of course not. But it destroyed my hometown, and it needs to be kept where that ball will never be opened again. It's not as if it will battle for _you_."

_"Don't let him!"_ Chaletwo said frantically. Mark's initial inclination was to agree, but after a second of thought, he wasn't quite sure. After all, they had put their trust in Rick not sending out any of the legendaries he was keeping, and he had a distinct feeling that Carl meant it when he said he would make sure Volcaryu was never sent out again.

"All right," Mark replied. "You can take Volcaryu. But it needs to be kept where it can't be sent out ever again to cause more destruction. Not even to look at it. Okay?"

Carl nodded firmly. "Can I ask you a question?" he then said, and Mark nodded curiously.

"What was that thing you sent out that made Volcaryu come?"

Mark racked his brain; he'd forgotten that he had done that. He quickly came to the conclusion that the truth was the only thing he could really tell. "It was Thunderyu. Chaletwo created it along with Volcaryu and one other dragon, and they hate one another and can sense each other's presence." He paused. "I guess Chaletwo realized we were there and decided not to make Volcaryu come out after all, but then when I sent Thunderyu out, Volcaryu sensed it and came anyway."

"What's the third dragon?" Carl asked, stroking his beard.

_"Polaryu, Champion Cave,"_ Chaletwo answered in Mark's head, _"but you really…"_

"It's called Polaryu, and it's in Champion Cave," Mark responded, ignoring Chaletwo and enjoying every minute of it. Carl nodded thoughtfully.

"All right, then. Thank you for warning us. I hope we see one another again eventually." He paused. "Well, we have one thing left to do."

Carl reached into his jacket, took out a box and looked at May. "I forgot to give you this yesterday," he said, opened the box and handed her a round, silver badge from it. "And…" He turned to Mark and Alan. "Well, with my Gym gone, we can't exactly have a rematch, can we? I suppose you'd get it eventually anyway, and the fact is that you're not going to be allowed on Champion Island if you don't have all eight badges of the Ouen League. So… in the interest of preventing more disaster such as what happened to my town, you'd better take these."

And Carl handed them one badge each, though he clearly hated to do it. "Now, promise me that you'll get Diana's badge in Acaria City fair and square, will you? I won't feel at ease with myself unless I know that by the time you are at Champion Island your Pokémon would rightfully deserve these badges."

"Definitely," Alan replied, and Mark nodded. "Thank you."

Carl turned away. "Well, go on, then. I'll have to get to my friends and relatives and tell them that I'm fine." He mounted his Charizard with practiced ease. "Goodbye."

The female dragon winked at Mark's Charizard before taking off with her trainer. Charizard blushed and looked away, and didn't look up again until they were just a dark spot on the reddened eastern sky.

"Oh, stop complaining," Charlie muttered. "_Some_ of us aren't getting any at all."

Alan snickered. "Well, since you guys have been carrying us all morning, you should probably just get in your balls and make us do the walking to Acaria City."

"Good idea," the two Charizard replied simultaneously, and the three kids recalled their Pokémon before heading on along the road towards the rising sun.


	40. The Workings of the War

**Chapter 39: The Workings of the War**

Route 315 was painfully long.

There was no upwards hiking for a change, which did make it a bit more bearable – in fact, it all seemed to be a little bit downhill – but it was just so darned _boring_. There were grassy plains after grassy plains with absolutely no variation in the landscape beyond the occasional stream or pond with maybe a couple of trees beside them. And it was just so _long_. There was the occasional wild Pokémon to keep them occupied, sure – they let the Pokémon that hadn't taken part in the Volcaryu battle fight them – but nothing interesting enough to really liven it up to any degree, and either because of the sheer distance to Acaria City or because they stopped too frequently for too long, the sun had travelled all the way over the horizon and sank behind Mount Fever before Acaria City was much more than a tempting field of shimmering lights in the far distance.

"We should camp," Alan said and sighed, stopping on the road as they came to a couple of stray trees. "We won't get there before tomorrow. No use walking on in the dark."

They had brought out the Revives, Burn Heals and Hyper Potions early on to heal the Pokémon that had battled Volcaryu and gotten them into decent shape for the most part, so they could send out all of the Pokémon except Lapras and Gyarados. Mark was privately rather relieved that he didn't have to send out Gyarados, and May also seemed rather relieved that she didn't have to send out Lapras. Their problems with the two Water Pokémon were perhaps more similar than Mark had realized; the main difference was that Mark had a problem with something Gyarados had done while Lapras had a problem with something May had done.

After coming to the quick conclusion that they weren't going to be finding any decent amount of firewood there, they got Diamond and the two Charizard to take on the role of the campfire. Then they sat down in a circle so that the distance between the three Fire Pokémon was approximately equal, and although it felt remarkably odd at first to sit in silence around a pile of backpacks with the firelight coming from the circle itself, Mark found himself to be quick to get used to it.

He looked across at May, who was sitting beside her Tyranitar and stroking his rocklike hide absent-mindedly. The Pokémon was lying down on his stomach with his head resting on his arm and his eyes closed, emitting a quiet kind of content growl or murr. Mark noticed suddenly that despite that Pupitar had evolved and was at least now clearly capable of making sounds, he still hadn't heard him say a word of understandable speech. He tried to recall if he'd ever talked as a Larvitar and didn't remember him doing so at all. He couldn't help finding it a little creepy.

"So," he said, looking over the group. Everyone looked up and waited for him to say something.

"Chaletwo?" he asked, not really quite sure why, reaching into his mind.

_"What?"_ came the snappy reply.

Mark sighed. "Still upset about Volcaryu?"

_"You shouldn't have done that."_

"Come on," Mark said, irritated. "Carl isn't going to try to use Volcaryu. You heard the way he talked about him destroying Crater Town."

_"Yes, I did,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Exactly. He hates Volcaryu because he destroyed his town. And you saw that man kick Pupitar into lava for the heck of it, just to see how heat-resistant he was, for Christ's sake! Why do you think he really wanted to keep him?"_

Mark saw Tyranitar's eyes flick open at the mention of him. _"What do you mean?"_

_"It's not the War I'm worried about,"_ Chaletwo muttered, and Mark suddenly understood.

"You think he'll… do something to Volcaryu?"

Chaletwo didn't respond.

"So?" May said in a spectacular moment of insensitivity that she could perhaps only partly be blamed for since she didn't know where the dragons had come from. "I don't get why you care so much about those things. I mean, from what I can gather they're psychotic and violent, have been sleeping for the past thousand years, and have had too little waking time since their creation to develop personalities or intelligent thought beyond 'Kill the other dragons and whatever might get in the way'. And still you seem to care more about them than Suicune, somebody you've actually talked to in person and gotten to know and who is not murderous. Seriously, is it just me or are you hiding something?"

Mark could feel a sting of pain that was not his own in the back of his mind, and for a moment he felt sorry for Chaletwo, sorry enough to abandon his previous intention to just tell May and Alan that Chaletwo had created the dragons. "I'm sure it's nothing important," he said instead, and then realized that for this to work out well in a non-obviously suspicious manner he'd have to propose a change of topic to something more important. "I mean, we're all here on a quest to try to prevent the War of the Legends, so wouldn't it be nice to maybe get the details clear on that once and for all now? What do you say?" He immediately liked the idea himself; things about it had been pecking at his curiosity for a while. He looked around the circle.

"That would make sense," Alan said, and everyone else more or less followed with some sort of agreement. It did make a lot of sense. Now that he thought about it, what they knew was all awfully vague.

_"I suppose,"_ said Chaletwo. _"I'll tell you what I know. Just ask."_

"All right," Mark began. "To start with… the War is caused by something called the Destroyer, which drains the legendaries' power, right?"

_"Yes,"_ said Chaletwo's voice.

"What is the Destroyer exactly?"

_"Presumably, it's a legendary Pokémon."_

"Presumably?" May asked sceptically.

_"Well, we don't exactly know much about it,"_ Chaletwo said. _"But the Creator and the Preserver are legendary Pokémon, so it would make sense for the Destroyer to be one as well."_

Mark nodded. "Okay. So the Creator…"

_"…is the last legendary survivor of the previous War. Some sort of residual energy from the other legendaries settles into the last one when it's all over. It gives them the power to create living creatures out of inorganic material."_

"Right. What about the Preserver? I've been curious about the Preserver for a while, actually. What does the Preserver do? The Creator has the power to create. Do you have some sort of… power to preserve?"

_"The Preserver is the first Pokémon that the Creator creates after the War,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"There's some extra spark of power that the Creator has at that point which is lost afterwards, and that extra spark gives the Preserver the ability to travel through time."_

"So time-travelling is a Preserver thing? Wait, what about Celebi?"

Chaletwo gave a mental shrug. _"Time-travelling isn't that complicated, if you go into that. You can make a time-traveller without that. That extra spark just makes it happen automatically."_

"Could the Creator decide not to use that extra spark in the first creature he creates?"

_"I don't know. Mew didn't mention it."_

"So Chaletwo," May began just as Mark was about to go on, "I've been wondering. You can travel through time. Why haven't you just taken all the legendary Pokémon into the future to just after the moment they'd all go mad? Seems a lot easier than trying to capture all of them."

Chaletwo sighed. _"Time-travelling doesn't work that way. Every living creature belongs to a certain time. If you take someone to a different time, he'll still be anchored to his own time, and the Destroyer can drain a legendary's power through that anchor even when the legendary's physical existence is in some other time. And maintaining that stretch of the anchor requires the time-traveller to put in a steady flow of energy. Basically we'd all continue to get weaker anyway, I'd eventually become too weak to keep us there, and we'd all bounce back just in time to go mad. In short, useless."_

"What about going to the past, then?" May asked. "Altering it somehow so that the War doesn't happen?"

Chaletwo sighed again. _"That only happens in movies. You can't mess with the past in the real world. You can go to the future from your own time and then back. Celebi has this prescience thing where she feels a calling to appear at some point in the future, but that's still only actually travelling to the future and she has awfully little control over it all. There's no changing the past. I wouldn't even know what to change if I could."_

"But wait," Mark said. "Didn't you say that Chalenor took Mewtwo back in time to be there before the first War? How could Chalenor do that when it was long before Mewtwo's own time? And how did Mewtwo not just bounce back when Chalenor ran out of power to keep him there?"

There was a long silence. _"That is strange,"_ Chaletwo said at last. _"I don't know why I haven't thought about that before. Maybe it is possible to take someone from the future back to the time-traveller's own time, but I'm not sure that would help us any now, especially since I'm not powerful enough to time-travel anymore, anyway."_

"What about how Mewtwo didn't bounce back, then?"

_"I don't know. Maybe some other power came into it somehow, but I don't know what it could be."_

Mark took a deep breath. The sudden realization that the situation was ripe with mysteries not even Chaletwo knew the answer to was extremely disconcerting, and suddenly everything seemed a lot more hopeless than it had when he'd been picking up the Ultra Ball containing Volcaryu. But this was only all the more reason to want to find out more.

"So what does the Preserver do exactly again?"

Chaletwo actually paused for a couple of seconds. _"Mew says the Preserver has the role of being a guardian of life. Some crap like that."_

"But that's just an arbitrary role, isn't it?" Mark protested. "I mean, why are you, or whoever the Creator creates first, the Preserver? Sure, you can automatically time-travel, but I don't get why that should make you more of a 'preserver' than anyone else. Isn't there anything else that makes you special?"

_"Well. Yes,"_ Chaletwo said hesitantly. He paused for a moment while everyone looked expectantly at Mark and then sighed. _"You know how legendary Pokémon are immortal, in the sense that they don't age or reproduce, but can be killed if their body is destroyed like any other living creature?"_

An uncomfortable flash of pulling Suicune's limp, cold paw to drag the body against dew-coated grass struck Mark's mind and he felt a sting of pain in his heart at the thought. "Yes, I think we're all pretty clear on that."

_"Well, the Creator and the Preserver, Mew and I, are true immortals."_

A few seconds passed in stunned silence.

"Meaning… what exactly?" Mark asked slowly.

_"Meaning that you could hack away at me with a chainsaw for however long you liked, and the tissue would heal faster than you'd be able to tear through it. It would be painful as all hell, but I'd be fine afterwards."_

This took a while to digest.

"That doesn't make any sense," Mark muttered at last and shook his head. "Then there would be two survivors of the War of the Legends, since neither of you can die."

_"Remember that the Destroyer drains away all our powers before the War of the Legends. He gets this as well, just before the end. During the War we'll be as mortal as the other legendaries."_ He paused. _"Awfully depressing, being immortal except at just about the only time you're likely to die."_

Mark shook his head again to clear it. "Okay, this is a bit surprising to find out now, but it doesn't seem to be of much importance here, so let's just go on. I'm wondering… can the Destroyer still drain the legendaries' power when they've already been caught?"

_"No,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Or rather, he can drain mine, because I'm anchored to you, which allows him to get to me, but presuming the other legendaries don't have anchors within the world, which they generally wouldn't, he won't be draining theirs. And of course, when I feel that my power has almost run out, I'll cut the connection to you so that the Destroyer can't make me mad through that anchor."_

"Wait, so you're letting your power be drained because you're in Mark's head?" May asked.

_"Well, yes,"_ Chaletwo said. _"That's pretty necessary. I need to be able to talk to you guys when I need to, and this is the only way that's possible. I'd lost too much power already for it to be that much of a loss, and besides, I can act as a clock now, since as I said, I'll feel it when the War is drawing closer. This is why Molzapart hasn't been talking to you – he's not anchored to your brain, although of course he was also pretty powerless before anyway."_

"Right," Mark said, realizing with bemusement that he had never really thought about why Molzapart wasn't in his head too. "So when the Destroyer has drained the power of all the legendaries, what happens exactly?"

_"The Destroyer emits some kind of pulse of energy, containing all the power of the legendary Pokémon doubled. This power flows directly back into the legendaries and is split evenly between them, and receiving such a large amount of power so suddenly basically drives them into a trancelike mental state focused on nothing but getting all that power out through destruction. They destroy everything, especially one another, until only one of them stands left, who then, as I said, receives this residual energy, which apparently causes them to lose consciousness for a time, and when they wake up they've gotten their sanity back as well as the power of the Creator."_

Mark nodded. "So there's a new Creator and Preserver after every War? What about the Destroyer? If he's a legendary Pokémon, does he die during the War too? If he does, then how does he come into existence afterwards? Could he be something like the second Pokémon created by the Creator or something? Is he a true immortal as well?"

_"I don't know the answer to any of that,"_ Chaletwo responded irritably; Mark got the feeling that Chaletwo hated admitting to himself how little he knew. _"But it would make the most sense if he were one of the legendaries and a true immortal, I suppose. Of course, I really hope not."_

"Why?" Alan asked. "If we knew who he was, then we could get to the root of the problem, couldn't we?"

_"Well, yes, except that then you'd have to battle something that's considerably more powerful than all of the legendary Pokémon of today put together. He's been draining their power for nearly a thousand years, after all. Which is why it worries me, because if the Destroyer is one of the legendary Pokémon, you'll most likely be confronting him at some point thinking he's just another legendary and getting a nasty surprise when he kills all of you with the flick of a claw. The best we could do would be to figure out who the Destroyer is beforehand and then know who you don't want to be battling. Of course, he might also be a legendary whose existence has escaped everyone until now."_

"But if the Destroyer is one of the legendaries," Alan asked, "what happens to him during the War of the Legends? Does he send his own power off to the other legendaries, making him powerless?"

_"Look, I really don't know. It's pointless to ask me questions about the Destroyer. I don't know anything about him, and neither does anyone else. I asked Mew much of the same stuff when I was young and he just shook his head and said he didn't know."_

"But," May said, "if we do catch all the legendary Pokémon – what's going to happen to that pulse of energy? Do you even know? What if it just goes back to the Destroyer, drives _him_ mad and makes him go on a rampage? All we'll have done will be pointless, and the world ends anyway."

Chaletwo was silent for a few moments, which Mark found very unsettling.

_"It's the best chance we've got,"_ the legendary said quietly at last, and the hopeless manner in which he said it made a cold shiver run down Mark's spine.

There were a few seconds of more stunned silence.

"Well, isn't that a cheery thought," May said. "We're on an impossibly dangerous quest to catch all of the legendary Pokémon so that we can perhaps, maybe, if we're really lucky and pulses of legendary power really do just vanish into thin air, save the world."

_"It isn't quite that bad,"_ Chaletwo said quickly. _"I mean, maybe the pulse finds normal Pokémon instead when there are no legendary Pokémon, and it would be spread between so many that none of them would gain enough power to go mad like that. Or maybe…"_

"Wait, wait, wait," Mark said, rubbing his forehead and thinking hard. "How does it… 'know' that there's only one legendary Pokémon left?"

Everyone looked at Mark while Chaletwo considered it.

_"I… don't know. That's an interesting thought. Where are you going with this?"_

"So let's assume the Destroyer does normally die in the War of the Legends. Maybe, if we catch all the legendary Pokémon in time and the power returns to the Destroyer… the War is technically over, because there's only one legendary Pokémon that has all the power of the others, including that… residual energy you talked about. And the Destroyer becomes the new Creator, and everybody lives, and we won't have to worry about this for at least another thousand years."

"Sounds awfully optimistic to me," May said, but everyone else was quite happy with a bit of optimism and Mark could see the Pokémon's faces light up with hope. Funny how the very same quest that had felt impossible before suddenly seemed easy when put into perspective with the other dreadful possibilities in the situation.

_"That… makes a lot of sense,"_ Chaletwo said thoughtfully. _"It's just speculation, of course, and we mustn't get ahead of ourselves, but I think it's good speculation. We stick to plan, then. Get all the legendary Pokémon, hope we don't attack the Destroyer himself, and then hope for the best… it sounds pretty good."_

"Well, not attacking the Destroyer himself is a pretty big point, isn't it?" Alan said. "We'd have to try to make sure that each legendary we attack is not the Destroyer first. What would be the most likely one to be it? What is the second Pokémon that Mew created?"

_"Well,"_ Chaletwo said, _"he started with Kanto's legendaries and then went on to the other regions, and the trios were created first, so…"_

"Articuno," Mark finished quietly, and his heart seemed to sink into a bottomless pit.

Alan shook his head. "Okay, I think it's been enough speculation for today. We've got our goals clear, and that's the most important thing. The next legendary we're going for is Polaryu, right? Champion Island?"

_"Yes."_

"So to get to him as quickly as possible, we should get to sleep so that we can head on to Acaria City early tomorrow. And sleep might clear out our heads a little and give us more good ideas, right? Pokémon, you can be outside of your balls."

There were murmurs of agreement and everyone prepared to go to sleep. Mark sighed, got his sleeping bag from the pile, unrolled it on the ground and crawled into it to lie down on his side. He saw that May was already in hers with her eyes closed, just next to where Tyranitar was still lying silently awake and watching him.

He would have found it creepy if his mind hadn't been too occupied by the thought that his second favourite Pokémon that he had spent countless battling classes sketching up on the back of his schoolwork might after all be the creature bringing about the end of the world. 


	41. In the Dark

**Chapter 40: In the Dark**

They arrived in Acaria City around noon the next day.

Acaria City was the largest settlement in Ouen as well as one of the oldest. When the first early settlers had ventured inward in search of happiness, they had stumbled upon this beautiful, lush valley in the heart of the region and built many independent farms which later grew more numerous. By the time the place was densely populated enough for it to be impossible to call it anything but a city, there were at least three different families laying claim to the right to name it on the grounds that their ancestors had supposedly been the first people to live in the area, and for a long period of time the city had several different names. Before that dispute was ever resolved, however, a heroic young woman named Danielle Acaria and her bird Pokémon had next to single-handedly saved the city from being burnt to cinders by an army of trained Charizard from Johto, with which Ouen was at war at the time, and an overwhelming majority of the city's inhabitants had afterwards agreed that it should be named Acaria City in her honour.

"Naturally, I won't be able to go with you to Champion Island," Alan was saying as they walked into the lush Route 217 in search of a good place to train for the Gym after lunch and a Pokémon Center rest. "I don't have all the Ouen badges, so I can't come onto the island without special permission. So while you're there, I think I should be on the lookout for Rainteicune while training my Pokémon to be better able to battle some legendaries. Rainteicune is just a matter of finding him; he'll let me recapture him as soon as I've explained the situation, so that shouldn't be a problem. You'll be partaking in the League, correct?"

May nodded. "Of course."

Mark sighed and looked up. "I'm not sure I want to compete anymore. I don't think competitive battling is really my thing."

He'd said it. It felt odd to say it; part of him stubbornly felt like he was betraying his childhood self that had been so desperate to become a Pokémon trainer and participate in the League Championships. May looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Wouldn't it seem mighty suspicious if you came to Champion Island and went through the cave but didn't participate in the League? It would seem like you only got all the badges to be able to do something on the island and then run off."

"I _did_ get all the badges to be able to do something on the island," Mark pointed out.

"But they don't know you're trying to capture a legendary dragon Pokémon before it goes mad, do they? They'll figure you're poaching Charmander or placing a bomb somewhere or trying to help somebody else cheat in the League or something." She looked at him. "Besides, no offense, Mark, but your Pokémon really need the experience if we're going to keep doing this legendary thing."

Mark shrugged. "I guess," he said. She did have a point, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to argue. "But it isn't over until sometime in August, is it? That's an awful lot of time to waste not finding any legendaries."

_"Actually,"_ Chaletwo suddenly spoke up, _"I think it's a good idea you get your Pokémon trained. We have no legendaries whose location we know and should be heading to anyway after Polaryu, so we don't know if we'd be finding any in that time at all, and frankly the prospect of having to battle the Waraider herd worries me at the moment, what with there being eight of them to fight at the same time."_

Mark's stomach churned uncomfortably at the idea. Fighting just one legendary was bad enough. Eight at the same time seemed impossible. Some nice training did sound good in that context.

"Hey, Chaletwo," Alan said, "you know what you were saying yesterday about the whole physical link to Mark thing? What if Molzapart linked to me in that way, and then if I find any legendaries we need to battle, Molzapart communicates with you somehow and you teleport Mark and May over?"

A second passed in silence. _"Hmm,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Awfully risky, leaving Molzapart vulnerable to the Destroyer too for a couple of months. Right now he can still modify memories on a small scale. He could lose that."_

May shrugged. "Is that really ever going to be so useful?" she said. "Modifying memories is nice when you want to fake someone's death while they're still walking around, but now that that's done, I can't really think of any situations where we'd need it, especially since we're done with both of the legendaries stuck next to towns. Better than some legendary blowing Alan's head off while we're not there, in any case."

_"Maintaining a constant, full psychic link between Molzapart and me would take a lot of energy,"_ Chaletwo said thoughtfully. _"But I suppose it would be possible for me to listen for help calls. Molzapart wouldn't be able to focus them to me specifically, but if he just sent a powerful psychic pulse in all directions, I'd be able to pick it up while Alan traps the legendary, and then you arrive in time for the battle… it should be a pretty solid plan aside from the lack of possible memory modifications, and I suppose May is right that it wouldn't be much of a loss. Well, good idea, then, Alan. We'll do this unless something changes."_

The road led them between beautiful, flowery hills along a river which also ran through the middle of the city. There was no wind at all and not a trace of clouds in the sky, making the landscape on the left-hand side look strangely still, but the flowing river on the right-hand side balanced it out to make it pleasantly alive.

"Are you still worried about Volcaryu?" Mark muttered under his breath, giving Chaletwo a mental prod.

_"I'll feel if he sends him out,"_ Chaletwo replied shortly.

"And what then?"

_"We teleport to wherever they are."_

Mark would have stared at him if Chaletwo hadn't been only in his head. "Carl would see you."

_"Yes."_

"And I told Carl a whole story about how you were going to take over the world using Volcaryu."

_"What else do you propose we do?"_ Chaletwo snapped. _"Wait for the moment Volcaryu goes mad and kills us all?"_

Mark paused. "We don't really know what Carl would do with Volcaryu if anything," he then said. "It's pretty senseless to start wondering what we're going to do if we don't have the first idea what Carl is going to do."

Chaletwo grunted in response, signalling that he wanted to end the conversation.

It was not long before they came to where the road turned north while the river continued on eastwards into a valley where it widened into a long lake.

"Okay," said May and stopped, "let's train here around the lake. Screw the wild Pokémon; our Pokémon will learn a lot more battling one another."

Mark shrugged and the three of them walked together off the path to the lake.

"What levels are your Pokémon again, Mark?" May asked.

"Uh, fifty or so?" He shrugged.

"Right. I think we'd accomplish the most by training specific skills instead of just randomly battling one another. Send them out."

Mark plucked the six Pokéballs from his belt and threw them loosely forward. Charizard, Jolteon, Sandslash, Dragonair, Scyther and Letal emerged in flashes of white light. May looked thoughtfully at them. "What level are Dragonair and Letal exactly?" she finally asked.

Mark reached for his Pokédex and pointed it at them in turn. "Dragonair's level 51, Letal's 49."

She nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, they probably won't evolve just yet. Let's forget about doing that before the Gym for now and focus on some techniques." She paused. "Hey, what does Letal know at the moment?"

"Um," Mark said and began to count the ones he remembered off on his fingers. "Tackle, Tail Whip, Hypnosis, Take Down, Slash, Headbutt, Iron Tail, Iron Defense, Agility…"

"Payback?" May shot in. "Sand-Attack?"

Mark shrugged. "I don't think I've ever used them. Oh, right," he added, remembering the battle with Alan, "she managed to use Tri Attack the other day."

May raised her eyebrows. "At level 49?"

"Yeah?"

She whistled. "Nice. Normally they only learn that very close to evolution."

Letal looked at him, and he looked in puzzlement back at May. "So she's going to evolve soon?"

May shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. She could just have been quick to learn that attack."

There was a second of silence while May regarded Letal with interest. "Well, anyway," she said abruptly, snapping her gaze back to Mark. "What I was saying, I think Letal can learn some tricks. Lend me your Pokédex for a second?" She walked up to him and he obediently handed her the device. She pointed it at Letal and pressed a few buttons.

"Right," she said, showing him the screen. "This is Letal's ordinary attack list. They evolve from Leta at level thirty or so, having already learned this stuff here, and after they evolve they'll proceed to learn this stuff." She pointed vaguely to the bottom half of the list. "But they also gain the ability to develop their Headbutt and Payback attacks into new variations now that they've got armor and a Steel type to work with." She scrolled to the top of the move list, where it listed Iron Head and Metal Burst just after the ordinary Tackle and Tail Whip. "So, well, yeah. They won't learn moves like those on their own, but some focused training can do the trick. Wanna try it?"

Mark looked at Letal. "What do you think?" She just looked expectantly up at May.

May reached for her Pokéball necklace. "Okay, let's see," she muttered. She grabbed one of the balls and threw it; it opened and the light inside formed into Tyranitar.

Letal looked a bit doubtful, and Mark felt much the same way. "Why Tyranitar?" he protested. "There's no way she can defeat him."

"Since when was the point defeating him?" said May, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Tyranitar is best because he's resistant to Normal and Dark attacks and weak to Steel attacks. This way we'll know better when she's doing it right. If her attacks are being empowered by her Steel-type, they will hurt Tyranitar a lot more."

"Oh. Right." Mark looked back at Letal and then at May again; Tyranitar stood calmly between them, observing Mark's Pokémon. "So how do we do this?"

"Let's start with Iron Head. Okay, Letal, I want you to try to use a Headbutt, just like normal, except with some Steel power to it. Try it."

Letal took a nervous glance at Tyranitar and then charged, ramming her head into the dinosaur's blue stomach. Tyranitar looked down at her, obviously just about completely unhurt. May sighed.

"Okay, let's try again. Try to focus before you attack. Get the Steel-type into your head better. Try to…"

Letal closed her eyes, charged again and hit Tyranitar's diamond-shaped stomach area again with similar results as before. She let out a cry of frustration.

"Now, Letal," May began, but Mark cut her off, feeling a bit dumb just standing there.

"Aren't we training my Pokémon here? Can't I do this?"

May rolled her eyes. "If you want."

"Okay, Letal, try to…" Mark attempted to imagine himself as a Pokémon, but couldn't really relate to the experience of learning new attacks at all. "Eh, what do you do when you use something like Iron Tail? Can't you just try to do the same thing, except for the… head… instead of the tail?"

Letal closed her eyes to concentrate and her tail began to glow with white energy. She shook her head in irritation and tried again; this time her tail flickered and after a moment her mask lit up instead.

"Okay, that might be it," he said encouragingly. "Try it."

Letal charged and smashed her head into Tyranitar's body, and nothing happened. Tyranitar grunted and looked at May.

"Nope, not it," she said and shook her head. "Maybe a step in the right direction, but not it."

"How do people normally do this?" Mark asked in frustration. "There has to be some method to get it right, hasn't there?"

May shrugged. "Normally people go to eccentric professionals who make you pay in some silly items they happen to collect."

Mark looked at her strangely. "Uh, okay, Letal, try again. Concentrate more. Try to get more energy into the mask."

She made another attempt that did little more than the previous.

"Hey," May suddenly said, "I don't think it's about the mask. The problem isn't that she's not touching him with a metallic surface or something. It's that she's not hitting him hard enough."

She walked quickly around to stand in front of Tyranitar and gave him a rough push with her hand and then a punch; she winced slightly while the dinosaur was as comically unaffected as ever.

"See," she said and rubbed her knuckles, "it's just that his skin is harder than her neck. Even if I had a metal shield on my fist I wouldn't be able to do anything much to him because my arm absorbs too much of the power of the impact. Same with Letal's neck. If you get my drift."

Mark looked blankly at her.

May sighed. "Letal, try to make your neck metallic while you do it too. Or your whole body, even. Whatever works best."

She stepped to the side and Letal closed her eyes to concentrate again. Her entire body was enveloped into that white glow, almost as if she were evolving, but then she charged and in mid-air the glow changed to a shiny chrome spread uniformly over her body just a split second before she smashed headfirst into Tyranitar's belly.

The dinosaur roared and staggered a couple of steps backwards, shaking his head. He growled at Letal; Mark's Pokémon had returned to looking her ordinary self.

"Great job, Letal," Mark said and petted the tired Pokémon's neck a little. "You'll get that other one in no time."

"That's more like it," said May, smiling in satisfaction. "Let's try that again a few more times."

* * *

The current Acaria City Gym leader was a descendant of the city's founder, a young woman named Diana Acaria, whose decision to train Dark Pokémon from Johto after having been a great fan of former Elite Four member Karen since childhood would most likely not have pleased her famous ancestor very much. The Gym, which she had inherited from her father, had originally been a Flying-type Gym and still bore some witness to that past in its outwards appearance: Mark noticed feathers decorating the wooden panel bearing the Gym's name above the entrance. Diana, however, had had the panel, as well as the rest of the Gym, painted in a jet-black color that made the building seem awfully foreboding. The words 'ACARIA CITY GYM' were now blood red.

It had been an exhausting day of training, but it had been worth it: Mark felt fairly confident now that he had gotten a chance to focus a little on each of his Pokémon, and Letal in particular had gotten a lot out of it. May had given him helpful tips about Dark-type Pokémon that he tried to keep bubbling at the top of his mind. They'd had dinner with Alan and then parted with him at a trainer hotel while the two of them headed to the Gym, which was apparently only open after sundown.

"Is it just me or doesn't it have any windows?" May commented. Mark squinted at the building; what appeared to have been windows at some point had been sloppily boarded up and the boards then painted black like the rest of it.

"So then why," she continued, "does she even bother not having it open in the day? It's not like you could tell the difference from the inside."

Mark shrugged. "Maybe Dark-types just feel better in the night or something." He glanced up at the murky sky; the western horizon was still pink with dark purple clouds floating lazily above the roofs of the buildings. The eastern sky had gone dark blue.

"Well, there's no sun visible anymore, so it's got to count as open," May said, echoing his thoughts. "Let's get inside."

She walked up to the double doors and Mark hastily followed. May peered at the door knockers, shaped like the heads of a Tyranitar and a Houndoom holding rings in their mouths, and then grabbed the Tyranitar one and knocked harshly on the door a few times. They heard the ringing echo of the knock inside, but nobody came to open the door.

May pushed the door, and it opened. "Well, that was pointless," she said, raising an eyebrow at the ornate door knockers as they stepped inside.

The door slammed shut, and it was dark.

Really, _really_ dark.

"What the hell?" Mark heard May mutter by his side. He knew more about the Gyms of his region than she did, of course, and had previously been vaguely aware that this Gym was dark, but somehow he had never quite realized just how dark.

"Wait," he said. "There's supposed to be a candle."

He blinked a few times and looked around. The building was huge, since after all it had used to be a Flying-type Gym that had to give the bird Pokémon some room to fly; the arena had then, he knew, been dug partly into the ground in order to compensate for not being allowed to make the roof of the building higher than a standard battle arena, but it was spacious on the horizontal plane as well. Finally he found a flicker of faint light somewhere at the far right. Suspiciously faint, in fact. He wasn't quite sure how he got the idea of trying to stand on tiptoe, but when he did, the actual flame came into view. Clearly there was something in the way.

"May, do you see the candle?" Mark asked. She was taller than him, after all.

"Yeah," she said, "but what is it for? It's not exactly lighting the way."

"The Gym Leader is there," Mark said. "It's a puzzle. You're supposed to get there in the dark. Presumably there are some obstacles on the way."

May sighed. "I don't get Gym puzzles. What do they have to do with your Pokémon battling ability? And couldn't you just bring a flashlight, anyway? Or a Pokémon with Flash?"

Mark shrugged. "I guess Diana would strangle you."

May snorted. "Just try to stay close and we'll figure this out. Let's try just going in the opposite direction of the door first."

Mark did so and bumped into a wall. "Ow. There's a wall."

"Yeah, I noticed," May said on his left.

He felt the wall up and down and found it to be about a head shorter than him, but there were large spikes on the top to make it clear they weren't supposed to climb over it. He felt it experimentally a bit more to the right and found a corner; he felt the whole right wall to confirm there was no getting past it and then said, "Dead end on this side."

"Not on this one, I think," May said, a bit farther to his left now. "No, the wall goes on. Follow me."

Mark hurried over and bumped into her back.

"Watch it," May hissed.

"Sorry."

May felt their way ahead along the wall for a little while and they'd gotten to a reasonable pace when suddenly she stopped and Mark bumped into her back again.

"The wall turns right here," she said.

"Well, let's go there, then."

They followed that path a couple of meters in before it turned right again, and then continued for a few more before May told Mark to stop.

"What?"

"It's a dead end," she said and he could hear her hands feeling the wall in front of them. "And there haven't been any other paths since we turned for the first time. It's a maze."

Mark sighed. "Let's go back to the first path by the outside wall."

He led the way now; they had no need to feel the walls on the way as long as they were careful to know where they were on their path. Finally they got back to the outside wall and found that indeed, they could continue straight ahead where they had turned. Mark was still in the lead, but this time they decided to feel one wall each in order to know their options more easily. He covered the wall on the right while May was by the outside wall; the path was still rather narrow and they couldn't stand side by side.

"It turns here," he said as he felt the wall end on his side and stepped into the new path.

"Here too," May confirmed behind him to his left. "No choice, then."

Mark took a step forward and suddenly found himself falling. He let out some sort of a yelp and then realized he was sliding down the slippery inside of a wide pipe, having only barely enough time to come to this conclusion before he tumbled out of the end of the pipe onto some soft surface. He shook his head and stood up, blinking as he realized that there was dim light coming from somewhere on the left. The room was cold.

May's feet knocked him back over as she came sliding down the pipe after him. He managed to stop his fall with his hands; the floor seemed to have been covered with old, dirty mattresses.

"You fell down too, huh?"

"I stepped forward to see why you yelled." May stood up and blinked while Mark looked around. The room had a pretty high ceiling, and wide pipes like the one they had slid down were here and there, reaching from their opening near the floor, spiralling gently upwards and disappearing into the ceiling. On the left, where the light came from, there was a staircase.

"Right," May said as she noticed it. "Okay, so presumably the floor in the Gym has a bunch of trapdoors and they send you down here, which means you have to go back up outside, enter the Gym again, and start the maze from scratch. Right?"

Mark nodded. "Looks like it to me."

"That's going to be a lot of fun."

They walked towards the staircase and up, emerging out of the ground by the side of the Gym. They went back around to the front doors and reentered the darkness, finding their way quickly back to where they had fallen down the first time.

"Okay, wait a second," May said. "I want to see how these trapdoors work."

Mark stepped blindly into the corner on the left while May bent down and seemed to start feeling the floor. He waited for a few awkward seconds; there were two knocks.

"Okay," said May's voice, "the trapdoors open only when you put enough weight on them, I assume, because giving it a push didn't do it, so you can't just feel around with your foot. On the other hand, there is a bit of a difference in the sound when you knock on a trapdoor than when you knock on the normal floor." She knocked twice with her foot again, and indeed the sound was different.

"Which was which?" Mark asked doubtfully.

"First was trapdoor, second was floor." She did it again. "I'll take the lead now, okay?"

She did, and slowly they navigated their way through the maze, with May notifying him of and guiding him past the trapdoors on the way. Eventually they came straight to a wall where the path split in a T to the left and right. The flickering candlelight was still on the right, now far closer than it had originally been.

"Could be a trick," May said. "Candle's on the right, so she wants us to go right, but really it's left."

"Or the right way actually is right."

"Do we split?"

"No," Mark said quickly, not wanting to get lost completely alone in the dark. "We can try one first."

May sighed. "Mine first, then?"

"Sure."

As it turned out, after wandering around the darkness for a long while during which Mark completely lost track of where he was, May concluded that her way had been a collection of dead ends after all. This then provoked her into a rant about how stupid Diana must be while they returned to the original place where they had disagreed on where to go. Mark didn't feel overly exhilarated about his way having been right, having much preferred if the other one had been so that they'd have gotten to the Gym leader sooner, but when they headed along the right path he could at least feel sure they were on the way there.

The path turned right again and continued straight from there for a while until they again reached a left and right split.

"So," Mark said. "Left or right?"

"This is the front wall of the Gym," May said from in front of him, apparently referring to the wall straight ahead. "Right is away from the candle this time, since we're oriented the other way. Even if we didn't already know Diana doesn't try to make things non-straightforward, I'm pretty sure with the shape of our path here that way has got to be a dead end. So let's go left."

As it turned out, that was the last dead end on the way: they felt their way a short distance along the left path before it turned left again, and then they had a straight view of the candle standing on a table in an ornate candlestick at the far end of the hallway with no wall in sight between them.

"We're here!" Mark shouted and was about to break into a run, but May must have heard him move because she grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Are you crazy? There are bound to be trapdoors on the way now. She wants you to get overconfident now that you can see the goal. Or at least I hope she figured that out and is not completely braindead."

This time May was right: they navigated their way around three trapdoors uncomfortably close together and one farther along before finally making it to the table with a sigh of relief.

Mark looked around. The candle didn't give much light; it illuminated the long silver candlestick and the wooden surface of the table, but he could only dimly see the faint orange flicker on the walls around, and aside from glistening off a couple of spikes, the light didn't illuminate the walls farther away at all.

"So what do we do now?" asked May. "Where's Diana?"

Just as she said the name, a door opened in the far right corner; Mark hadn't noticed it was even there. In stepped a beautiful young woman with long, dark hair (it looked dyed, in fact, thought Mark), wearing a plain black dress, along with a demonic-looking dog Pokémon and a naturally dark-haired teenage boy in a black cape.

"_Victor_?" Mark asked incredulously and May spun around at the mention of the name. The boy looked up and grinned. "Hey, guys. Mitch told me you managed to get from the Pokémon Festival okay. How have you been?"

"I got a Tyranitar now!" May said immediately. "You said I could find Mutark then, right?"

"Yeah," Victor said and nodded. "If you want to get one, they're usually found around Route 316. You know, between here and Scorpio City. I first met you in Scorpio City just after I caught Precious, didn't I?"

"What are you doing here?" Mark asked, still dumbfounded. "Are you a junior trainer in the Gym?"

"Well, that's what I came here to be," Victor said and grinned. "But… Diana decided I was too good for that and made me assistant Gym leader instead."

Mark stared. Victor grinned still more widely.

"So well, since there are two of you, we've decided that this will be a tag battle. Do you know how that works?"

"Two trainers on the same team, isn't it?" Mark said doubtfully.

"Yeah. Both trainers send out one Pokémon at a time in a double battle. We will all use five Pokémon this time, and at the end of the match, all challengers who still have a Pokémon standing get a badge."

As if to underline his words with additional dramatics, Diana's Houndoom breathed out a bright Flamethrower that swept over the walls ahead and to the right with practiced accuracy, lighting torches in the walls to illuminate the Gym building better. Mark stared over the maze and wondered briefly how in the world they got around it in the dark.

The actual battle arena was to the left, marked by the usual lines in the floor, and all four trainers walked over to it, the leaders taking the farther end and the challengers the nearer. A rather small pool lay on the left side of the arena, the still water dark aside from the distorted, bright orange reflections of the torches on the walls.

"Acaria City Pokémon Gym," Diana said in a strong, regal voice. "Two on two tag battle, five Pokémon apiece. No switching allowed until a Pokémon has fainted. All trainers carrying six must lay one Pokéball on the table before the battle begins."

The leaders, of course, had only brought in the Pokémon they were going to use, so Mark and May had to turn back to the table. Mark took out his Pokédex and considered his choices. Sandslash's most powerful attack was Earthquake, which would hurt May's Pokémon too; he was probably the most obvious candidate for leaving out of the battle, and thus Mark quickly switched him to the PC. But who else should he leave out? If there was a pool in a Dark-type Gym, it wasn't unlikely that one of them had a Water-type Pokémon – Sharpedo came to mind immediately – and having Jolteon would be nice in that case.

In fact, he could think of Dark-type Pokémon that each of his Pokémon would have a type advantage over except for Dragonair, and although he'd have loved to look at him perform more Dragon Rushes, he placed the dragon's Pokéball on the table beside the candle.

"Who are you leaving out?" May whispered.

"Sandslash and Dragonair."

"Then if you kept Jolteon, I'm leaving Raichu. Do you mind?"

He shook his head, she placed one of her minimized balls on the table, and they walked back to their place on the arena.

"Houndoom, go!" Diana said sharply without warning, and the hellhound Pokémon leapt into the arena with a growl.

"Go, Insidious!" shouted Victor, throwing a Pokéball. It emerged into a scarecrow-like cactus Pokémon with an all-too-creepy grin; for some reason the buried fact that the large dark green diamond shape on its stomach meant it was female bubbled up in Mark's head as he saw it.

"Spirit, do it!" May yelled as she threw out one of her own Pokéballs. Mark quickly went over what Pokémon he had in his head: it was better to save Jolteon for a possible Water-type, Letal and Scyther would be at risk from Houndoom, and he could probably do more useful things with Gyarados later in the battle.

"Charizard, go!" he shouted, throwing his own Pokéball just as he realized that this would mean they were both using Fire Pokémon and that that might not be good when they weren't allowed to switch. He looked worriedly at May; she looked back at him with an expression that didn't seem so much disappointed as surprised.

"Crunch on the Charizard," ordered Diana.

"Spirit, Flamethrower the Cacturne once Ch…" May looked at Mark, her expression turning frustrated, and yelled, "Charizard, Flamethrower Spirit already!"

Mark stared at her, dumbfounded, as his Pokémon obeyed the order: Charizard, who had not taken off the ground, took a deep breath and quickly enveloped the Ninetales in bright flames out of his throat as Diana's Houndoom leapt onto his body with a snarl and locked its jaws around his neck. Meanwhile, Spirit was glowing with heat, and she began to take a breath to execute her own attack.

"Sucker Punch the Ninetales!" Victor cried, and all of a sudden Insidious, grinning her creepy grin, spun around on the spot, appearing just in front of Spirit and socking her in the jaw before reappearing where she had been before. Spirit staggered backwards with a growl, but shook her head and breathed a long tongue of fire at the cactus Pokémon, who was easily scorched.

"Mark," May said quickly, "that was activating Flash Fire. It's useful. Houndoom probably has it too, so don't use any Fire attacks on it, okay?"

Mark just nodded; he vaguely remembered Flash Fire now that she mentioned it. "Okay, Charizard, uh, Flamethrower the Cacturne."

"Spirit, use Confuse Ray on the Houndoom!"

"Destiny Bond, Insidious!"

Just as Charizard inhaled and released a blast of flames towards the cactus Pokémon, she glowed with a purple aura, and as the scarecrow-like body was lit on fire and the Pokémon roared in pain, so did Charizard. Diana shouted something to her Houndoom, but Mark didn't hear it as Charizard collapsed onto the ground at exactly the same time as the Cacturne did.

"Return," he said, recalling his first Pokémon back to the safety of his ball while Victor did the same for Insidious. Mark thought for a moment and then picked Gyarados's ball; after all, there were no Dark/Electric Pokémon to his knowledge.

"Go, Gyarados!"

The sea monster emerged in the pool from a blob of white light. Victor nodded and took out one of his own Pokéballs.

"Go, Vicious!"

Precious, Vicious and Insidious. Clearly Victor had a naming pattern. Mark chuckled as the light from the ball formed into a shark Pokémon opposite Gyarados in the pool.

"Gyarados, Hydro Pump on the Houndoom!" Mark yelled.

"Vicious, use Aqua Jet on the Ninetales."

"Houndoom, Faint Attack on the Gyarados!"

"Spirit, Payback on the Sharpedo!"

Victor's shark Pokémon seemed to turn into a blast of water as it smashed out of the pool and straight into Spirit's body. The Ninetales shook it off fairly easily although the attack had hit her by surprise and retaliated by wrapping her body in a purple aura and tackling the shark Pokémon in mid-air to send it back into the pool. Just as she did so, the Houndoom vanished from where it was and reappeared in mid-air behind Gyarados, smacking him upside the head with a paw before reappearing where it had been before. The sea monster growled and fired a well-aimed blast of water from his mouth that smashed the Houndoom into the wall.

"Another Aqua Jet on the Ninetales!" Victor was ordering his Pokémon.

"Flamethrower it," May hissed back as the shark bounded into Spirit again. She responded while Vicious was still in mid-air getting back to the pool: a cloud of silky flames scorched the shark Pokémon and it shivered as it landed back in the pool, swimming hastily back and forth for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, the dousing had apparently shaken the confusion off Diana's Houndoom, and when it had stood up and shaken its fur dry, she gave it an order: "Thunder Fang the Gyarados!"

Mark stared wide-eyed as the dog Pokémon growled and ran towards the pool with sparks flying around its bared teeth. Instead of attacking to Gyarados's face, the Houndoom swiftly turned to the other side of the pool and clamped its jaws onto the sea monster's exposed tail before he had managed to react. Gyarados roared with terrifying power as he thrashed wildly about, trying to shake the attacker off his tail; finally he managed to slam the Houndoom harshly enough into the floor beside the pool to make it let go, and he recovered soon afterwards. The Houndoom stood weakly up.

"Quick Attack the Houndoom!" May barked, and Spirit smacked her body into the dog Pokémon's body before it had the time to defend itself or get out of the way. It collapsed again, and this time it stayed down.

"Houndoom, return," Diana said, holding out a Pokéball that zapped the Pokémon quickly inside. "Honchkrow, go."

What emerged from the ball was a large, black bird with a collar of white feathers in the shape of a beard and head feathers forming something suspiciously like a wizard's hat. It cawed in a hoarse voice and flew into the air.

"Spirit, Flamethrower it!" May said immediately, and the Ninetales turned her head towards the crow and breathed out a plume of fire. The Honchkrow screeched in pain, but recovered quickly, flapping its wings to get rid of some dust between its feathers.

Mark looked quickly back at Gyarados. The Sharpedo, having gathered dark energy into its dorsal fin, was now using it as a blade to hack away at Gyarados's body below the surface of the pool, while the sea monster thrashed around, growling in annoyance as he snapped his jaws close to the shark but never quite reached it.

"Just Dragon Beam it!" Mark shouted. Gyarados looked at him and then at the three blue jewels on one of his upper segments before he shook his head hatefully and lunged his head down again. This time he managed to bite down hard on one of the shark's fins and raised its body out of the water, shaking it around.

"Vicious, use Assurance!" Victor called, and Gyarados's mouth exploded in a swirl of dark energy. The sea monster roared while the shark Pokémon fell back into the pool.

"Hyper Beam, then?" Mark said in frustration, part of him wishing he had brought Dragonair instead of Gyarados. The sea monster looked down at the Sharpedo in the pool, which was again preparing to slash with its dorsal fin, and an orb of white energy formed in his mouth before smashing down at the shark, splashing water everywhere.

This caused May and Diana to look up, having been fiercely engaged in their own half of the battle. Vicious the Sharpedo floated upside-down to the top of the pool, clearly unconscious, while Gyarados slumped down against the floor beside the pool to catch his breath, the Hyper Beam having taken a lot of energy out of him.

Mark looked back towards the other side of the arena, where Spirit and Honchkrow were still fighting; May's Pokémon had just fired another Flamethrower towards her opponent, which squawked and retreated a little further away in the air. The Ninetales was beginning to grow weary with the various cuts and bruises that the huge bird had given her. Honchkrow, on the other hand, still looked to be in reasonably good shape aside from a number of its feathers which were burning with ghostly blue fire.

"Honchkrow, use Dark Pulse!" Diana ordered, and the bird gave a powerful flap of its wings, sending a ripple of dark energy across the floor below it to strike the fox Pokémon. Spirit staggered backwards and then crumpled to the ground, fainted.

Mark suddenly became aware that Victor had just sent out a Pokémon and quickly looked over to where he was. The white shape of a wolflike Pokémon was just fading into its natural colors of black and gray; the Mightyena growled and bared its fangs.

May looked quickly at Victor's choice of a Pokémon and then back at Honchkrow, and finally grabbed a ball from her Pokéball necklace. "Go, Vibrava!"

"Honchkrow, use a Dark Pulse on the Gyarados!" Diana said sharply, not waiting for May's Pokémon to even come out of his Pokéball. Gyarados was still recovering his strength and could only watch as the giant crow sent another powerful pulse of dark energy his way. After all the beating he had taken already, Gyarados didn't really stand a chance; he grunted in pain as the attack hit him and then just gave way to unconsciousness.

Mark recalled him quickly. He knew just what he was going to send out next.

"Jolteon, do it! Thunderbolt the Honchkrow!"

While Jolteon was emerging from his Pokéball, Victor's Mightyena, apparently called Ferocious, had managed to pull off a Scary Face and May's Vibrava was whimpering in fear close to his trainer, much to her dismay.

"Come on!" she hissed. "Use Screech on the stupid thing!"

As Jolteon fired a bolt of electricity towards Diana's Pokémon with a cry, the antlion Pokémon pulled himself together and let out a high-pitched sound that was only vaguely uncomfortable to everyone present except Ferocious, at whom it was aimed; the Mightyena cowered, laying its ears flat against its head while May ordered Vibrava to follow it up with a Sand Tomb. Mark looked quickly back at Honchkrow to find that Jolteon's Electric attack had actually brought it down; the bird had fallen onto the floor where Diana was just recalling it.

"Go, Weavile!" the Gym leader shouted. "Hit the Vibrava with an Ice Shard!"

May's Pokémon had still not executed the last order she had given him when a white shape appeared out of Diana's Pokéball, turned into a limber, black, clawed Pokémon and fired a spontaneously generated sharp shard of ice straight at the Vibrava's head. The Pokémon screamed in pain as it hit and then fell limply to the ground, a few legs twitching.

May recalled him silently while Mark's attention turned back to Jolteon, on whom Victor's Mightyena was currently focusing its efforts while the Eevee evolution defended himself heroically with small bursts of electricity between dodging its snapping jaws.

"Ferocious, use a Taunt!"

Mark just barely had time to see May send out her Skarmory before the wolf Pokémon stopped and muttered something in Pokémon speech with a glint of more than just reflected light in its eyes. Jolteon turned around, shivering for a moment before he suddenly hissed, his spiky fur raising itself up on his back as it crackled with electric sparks.

Mark was about to tell him to use Thunder Wave when he realized that Taunt was specifically made to prevent him from using that sort of thing. "Thunderbolt!" he just yelled, even though Jolteon was pumping a jolt of electricity into the Mightyena's body already.

"Sucker Punch!" Victor ordered, and just as Jolteon was charging another Thunderbolt, Ferocious leapt at him with a raised paw and smacked him into the floor with it. He let the electricity loose in more or less random directions as he cried out in pain, sparks flying across the floor. Jolteon immediately began charging up energy again, but the Mightyena hit him with another Sucker Punch and he collapsed with a defeated whine.

"Sorry, Jolteon," Mark said as he recalled the Pokémon. "You did a good job."

He looked at May's Skarmory; his wings were glowing as he smashed them into the Weavile's body. The weasel Pokémon hissed, stretching the feathery crest on its head to its maximum size, and then retaliated by leaping into the air and hitting the metallic vulture with a well-aimed punch from its icy claws.

That reminded Mark that he had a Steel Pokémon too.

"Letal, go!" he shouted. "Use Iron Head on the Weavile!"

"Weavile, use another Ice Punch on the Skarmory!" Diana ordered her Pokémon.

"Ferocious, use Swagger on the Skarmory!"

"Skarmory, hit the Weavile with Steel Wing again!"

The Weavile was the fastest of the three Pokémon. It leapt into the air with ice crystals forming around the claws of its right arm and then smacked it into Skarmory's body. The bird Pokémon used the opportunity while it was there to strike it with glowing wings, throwing it back down at the ground, where it was about to stand up when Letal rushed towards it and headbutted it straight into the floor, her body temporarily metallic. The weasel Pokémon let out a mewling sound of pain but then just stopped moving.

"Hmph," Diana said, looking at Letal. "Weavile, return."

While the Gym leader recalled her Pokémon, Ferocious the Mightyena had apparently managed to pull off that Swagger because Skarmory bonked his head into the wall near the ceiling before fluttering drunkenly back towards the wolf Pokémon.

"Hit it with Drill Peck," May said.

Skarmory managed to keep his directions for a few seconds, long enough to put a spin on himself and dive towards the Mightyena. He also managed to do this with surprising speed such that Victor's Pokémon was only beginning to try to get out of the way when Skarmory struck it with his drilling beak and then crash-landed on top of it. Ferocious yelped in pain under the heap of metallic bird and neither of them moved.

May recalled her Pokémon, as did Victor with an encouraging "Nice work."

"It seems we all have two Pokémon left," Diana observed. "That is nicely even."

"Let's get on with it," May just said, having seemed rather irritated ever since Vibrava's not-all-too-glorious performance. She picked a Pokéball from her necklace and then waited for the Gym leaders.

Diana smiled faintly. "Heh. You know the rules, I see."

"Leader sends out first," May just said.

"Fine. Umbreon, I choose you!"

"Malicious, you go, girl!"

Diana's Pokéball sent out a black creature with long ears and a pattern of glowing, yellow rings on its body while the light from Victor's ball emerged into the white-furred, clawed and scythed shape of an Absol.

"Butterfree, go!" May shouted, hurling her ball forward with more force than usual as a triumphant smile broke out on her face. "Use Bug Buzz on the Absol!"

Mark wished in a way now that he had Scyther out instead of Letal – now that both of the Pokémon they were facing were pure Dark-types, it would have been nice to take them on with two bugs. But he couldn't switch now.

"Malicious, use Sucker Punch on the Butterfree!"

"Umbreon, get it with Confuse Ray!"

Mark had only a moment to figure out which Pokémon he wanted to attack and came to the conclusion that they might as well split their efforts. "Letal, use Iron Head on the Umbreon!"

The first attack to make contact was the Absol's, Sucker Punch being what it was. While May's Butterfree was still getting ready to attack, Malicious leapt into the air with a hiss and smacked a huge, clawed paw into the butterfly's body. She was thrown harshly backwards in the air, but managed fairly quick recovery and flapped her wings extremely rapidly for a moment, producing a high-pitched buzz that made the Absol cringe in pain. Meanwhile the Umbreon was creating a small ghost light in front of it, but Letal came flying at its side, her body metallized again, and managed to drive it into the wall with her attack. Umbreon flinched for a second, losing its concentration for the Confuse Ray.

"Butterfree, Safeguard!" May yelled. "Mark, keep the Absol occupied!"

"Okay, uh, try a Hypnosis!"

"Umbreon, use a Screech on the Letal," Diana commanded.

"Malicious, hit the Butterfree with Aerial Ace!" Victor ordered, his Absol nodding immediately as she prepared to leap with an intimidating hiss. Just as she sprang up into the air, however, Letal tackled her back down in mid-leap, pinned her down and stared intently into the Dark Pokémon's eyes for a few seconds. Malicious hissed in response but soon stopped struggling and fell into deep, hypnotic sleep.

"Great," May said while her Pokémon formed two translucent white bubbles of energy around herself and Letal. "We can focus on the Umbreon now. Butterfree, Bug Buzz."

The Gym leader's Pokémon was just crouching down and letting out a high-pitched screech that made Letal cringe. She stood up from the limp Absol's body and looked at Mark as May's Butterfree produced another powerful buzzing sound, this time aimed at the Umbreon.

"Butterfree, Silver Wind!"

"Okay, Letal, use… use Tri Attack. See if you can get it affected by a status condition."

Letal's mask glowed with white energy before she lowered her head, three pale beams of red, blue and yellow shooting from the points of the mask towards Diana's Pokémon. As they struck simultaneously, a gust of silvery powder swept through the room from Butterfree's fluttering wings to the already recoiling Umbreon, who whimpered as the powder settled into its fur. It shook itself, sending the powder swirling back towards the floor.

"By the way, Mark," May said quietly, "don't try to inflict a status effect on it. It has the Synchronize ability."

"It has what?"

"Synchronize. If it gets paralyzed, burned, frozen or whatever, so does Letal."

"Oh." Mark looked blankly at Letal while Diana issued another command to her Umbreon:

"Moonlight!"

May swore under her breath as the translucent image of a full moon appeared shimmering in the air above them, beams of light shining upon the Umbreon. "Okay, Butterfree, use Silver Wind as often as you can. Mark, try to wear it down."

"Uh, Letal, use Iron Tail."

"Her fourth move," May muttered to remind him as Letal sped towards Diana's Pokémon, her tail glowing. Letal swung it at the Umbreon, but being that the tail wasn't the easiest body part to strike someone with, the other Pokémon managed to dodge.

"Try again," Mark just called, and this time Letal managed to spin around quickly enough to smash her tail into the Umbreon's head. Being newly healed, the Gym leader's Pokémon didn't appear at all close to fainting, but it was clearly becoming a little tired. Butterfree fired another gust of silver powder towards it and it staggered backwards and shook its head.

"Umbreon, use Last Resort," Diana said calmly. Her Pokémon suddenly glowed all white and then simply smashed into Letal's body with unprecedented force.

"Metal Burst!" Mark blurted out as his Pokémon flew through the air and landed on the floor. She tumbled a few times over, in fact straight into the still-sleeping Malicious who was still lying on the floor with her trainer watching her carefully. Letal bolted right back up, her body turning entirely metallic before playing out a reflection of the Umbreon's attack, smashing right back into Diana's Pokémon which tumbled even farther across to the other side of the room.

When the Steel Pokémon's body bumped into her, however, the Absol had begun to stir. Mark saw her open an eye just as yet another Silver Wind struck the Umbreon.

"The Absol's waking up!" Mark shouted to May, and she looked sharply towards the white Pokémon as she shook her head and rose slowly to her feet. Mark looked up at Butterfree and saw that May's Pokémon was bathed in a silvery aura that her body seemed to be absorbing by the second. The white bubble of light was fading away now.

"Umbreon, use Last Resort on the Butterfree!" Diana ordered.

"Butterfree, Bug Buzz the Absol!" May yelled.

"Use that Aerial Ace, Malicious!" Victor called.

But Butterfree was quicker now. She flapped her wings with far more power than before, producing a hectic mess of screeching sound waves that made Victor's Absol scream in pain before collapsing, once again limp on the ground. Diana's Pokémon glowed all white again and shot into the air, smashing Butterfree into the ceiling from where she crumpled uselessly down like a paper toy. Letal, her body turned metallic yet again, smashed the Umbreon into the wall with her head.

Diana's Pokémon moaned in pain while Letal stepped away, her breathing fast and heavy. Then the Umbreon fell down, unconscious, while Letal trembled on her feet. She was obviously exhausted.

"I'll recall you now," Mark just muttered while the other three trainers drew their Pokéballs. Letal, however, shook her head fiercely.

"I want to evolve," she wheezed quietly, almost angrily. "Don't…"

He considered recalling her anyway, just because she looked almost sick. But she turned her head firmly back towards the Gym leaders and waited. Victor gave her a slightly concerned look before he reached for his last Pokéball.

Mark came to the sudden dumbfounded realization that out of all four trainers in the battle, he was the only one with two Pokémon left at this point. Even May was sending out her last. The thought made him grin for some reason.

"All right, then, Letal," he said. "If you want to keep fighting, you can."

"Precious, you're up," Victor said, throwing the familiar Ultra Ball into the arena to release the innocent-looking black kitten Pokémon that Sandslash had battled the first time they had met Victor. Letal growled suspiciously at it; "Mewww-tark!" it mewled happily in response.

"Tyranitar, GO!" said both girls' voices at the same time.

The green dinosaur Pokémon that Diana sent out looked a lot like May's – it was just at least a foot taller and a lot bulkier along with being a little darker in color, obviously being the older and more experienced Pokémon. It let out an ear-splitting roar as it emerged from its Pokéball, throwing its powerful tail around. A gust of sand whipped around the arena behind it.

It looked at its smaller adversary with a confident smirk, and May's Tyranitar responded with a challenging roar of his own.

"Mark, you fight the Tyranitar," May said quickly. "Letal's got the type advantage. Tyranitar, get Mutark with Stone Edge!"

May's Pokémon growled at the other Tyranitar but turned obediently towards the kitten.

"Letal, Iron Head!" Mark blurted out.

"Tyranitar, Crunch the Letal," Diana ordered.

"Precious, just hang on!"

Letal was running towards Diana's Pokémon already, having metallized her body although she was clearly shaking from the effort now. She smashed her head into the beast's blue belly and got it to grunt in pain before it bent down and picked her up in its powerful jaws. She squirmed around, turning the non-armored parts of her body into metal again even as the dinosaur shook her around in its mouth like a ragdoll. The Tyranitar threw her to the other end of the arena, where she managed, miraculously, to stand up yet again. Mark watched her in disbelief and couldn't help being both proud and impressed.

"Iron Tail!" he ordered, looking around. May's Tyranitar had conjured chunks of sharp rock from the floor that had given Victor's Mutark a bit of a beating, but clearly they had also been sharp enough to open a bleeding wound. Precious had tasted his own blood and grown considerably, now resembling a black ocelot with abnormally large fangs more than a housecat, and was bounding towards Letal with a hiss as she slammed her tail into the side of Diana's Tyranitar's body.

"Letal, watch out!" Mark blurted out, and she turned quickly around as the cat took a leap towards her. The Steel Pokémon only thought for a moment before swinging the blade of her head at her attacker, slicing it into the Mutark's chest.

Precious let out a mewling scream of pain as he was thrown to the side, blood spurting out of the wound. Letal approached him again, her body turning metallic as she prepared to attack, but Diana's Tyranitar scooped her up into its jaws, flames licking the sides of its mouth. Letal cried out in pain, her metallic body bending more easily under the crushing power of the Tyranitar's jaws when they were assisted by flaming heat…

"Tyranitar, Earthquake!" May shouted, and her Tyranitar stomped down one of his huge feet with a roar. Ripples spread through the floor; the larger dinosaur roared in pain as they passed under its feet, and it threw Letal away as it staggered backwards. Letal crashed into the wall and then crumpled into a half-molten heap on the floor.

Mark took out her Pokéball, but lowered it in disbelief as the heap stood up, very slowly, walked a few steps back into the arena, and was enveloped in a white glow.

Then the glow faded, the Pokémon's feet shaking like jelly, before she lost her balance and collapsed on the floor.

"Letal, come back," Mark said, holding out her ball and watching the red beam absorb her body. "You were amazing," he added as he replaced the ball on his belt, meaning it more than he ever had. "Scyther, finish it!"

While Scyther was materializing, Mark had the time to get a quick overview of the battle again, which made him come to the unsettling realization that the cut Letal had given Victor's Mutark had produced enough blood for him to make himself grow into a monster nearly the size of the Tyranitar he was facing with glowing red eyes and humongous fangs. This monster had then latched himself onto the back of May's Tyranitar, who was struggling to get him off while the cat tried to sink his fangs into the rocklike hide on the dinosaur's neck.

"Little help here?" May shouted as sharp rocks exploded out of the floor under the smaller Tyranitar's feet.

"Scyther, get the Mutark off him!" Mark yelled. The mantis sprang into action immediately, his scythes glowing with green energy as he zoomed towards the feline and brought his scythes down in a cross upon the Mutark's back. Precious roared in pain as Scyther delivered two more slashes to his front paws, causing him to momentarily release his hold; it was enough for the Tyranitar to throw him off his back. The Mutark landed on his feet a couple of meters away, not hesitating for a moment before leaping at Scyther again. Precious knocked him into the floor and bared his huge fangs.

Scyther snarled and delivered a well-aimed chop to one of the Mutark's legs. More blood spurted out from the wound as the creature let out a bloodcurdling scream; the Mutark reached his head down to lick the blood from the limp paw.

"Don't let him lick it!" Mark shouted. "He'll grow!"

Scyther's scythes glowed with green energy again and the mantis slashed into both of the cat's shoulders this time. This threw him a little bit backwards, enough for Scyther to wrench himself loose, get up and slash the Mutark's back again. His injured legs gave up underneath him, and Victor's Pokémon collapsed onto the ground in a pool of blood.

Scyther slashed him one more time for good measure before a Pokéball beam sucked the Mutark in. Victor looked at Scyther and frowned. "Well, looks like I'm out. Good job."

While all this had been going on, the two Tyranitar had been wrestling with one another, and Diana's was clearly gaining the upper hand thanks to its size. May's Tyranitar was in pretty bad shape, his back bearing deep cuts from the Mutark's sharp claws, and Mark realized suddenly as the larger Tyranitar pushed him a few steps backwards that he was trying to make him fall into the pool.

May looked quickly at Mark and he shouted the first thing he could think of:

"Scyther, another X-Scissor!"

The mantis zoomed at the larger Tyranitar's back and slashed, his scythes glowing green again. The Bug-type energy allowed the blades to slice into the dinosaur's hard skin, causing the beast to roar in pain and reflexively turn towards the new attacker, which finally gave May's Tyranitar some room to breathe.

"Earthquake!" May yelled, and Scyther zoomed away from both of the Tyranitar as the smaller one stomped his foot again, producing more ripples in the floor which bombarded the other dinosaur's feet. Diana's Tyranitar roared in more pain as the Gym leader frowned.

"Tyranitar, hit the Scyther with Stone Edge."

"Tyranitar, hit IT with Stone Edge!"

And while Diana's Tyranitar was bigger and more powerful, May's was slightly nimbler and quicker. Before the larger dinosaur could attack, the other one raised one of his arms and large rocks burst out of the ground underneath the larger Tyranitar, knocking it a bit sideways.

Then Scyther suddenly smashed into it as well, and that impact was enough to make Diana's Tyranitar topple over with a roar of protest and crash into the ground, betrayed by its own weight.

"Another Earthquake to finish it off," May ordered, her Tyranitar executing the order immediately. The floor rippled under the huge body, even more of it touching the floor now, and it grunted as every cell of its body trembled along with the ground. Scyther dived down to slash it with another X-Scissor, and it roared and twisted in still more pain.

"Tyranitar, return," said Diana's cold voice as the red Pokéball beam absorbed the huge Pokémon. "Good battle."

She reached into her dress and took out a small box as Victor walked over to her. She handed him one of the badges from the box before both Gym leaders walked across the arena, Diana to May and Victor to Mark.

"Here's your badge," Victor said with a quick smile. "Didn't know your Scyther was that brutal."

Mark snorted. "Look who's talking. You even name your Pokémon stuff like 'Vicious' and 'Malicious'."

Victor chuckled. "It's all in good fun." He reached out to shake Mark's hand and left the little, round object in his palm. Mark brought it up to his face and looked at it; unlike all the other Ouen badges, this one was not silver but black, and when he turned it in the flickering firelight, it seemed as if many sets of tiny, gleaming eyes were lurking in the middle of it.

"Thanks for the battle," Mark said and smiled. "Do you think the three of us could talk privately for a second?" he then added.

Victor shrugged. "Sure." He raised his voice: "Hey, Diana, do you think I could talk to these two for a sec?"

The Gym leader raised her eyebrows. "If you want." She walked gracefully back towards the door in the corner and closed it as May walked over to the boys.

"What's with 'Precious'?" she asked. "I mean, it fits the grammatical pattern, but it seems kind of out of place with 'Malicious' and 'Insidious'."

Victor rolled his eyes. "Come on. I can't call him 'Nefarious' or people start to suspect he's more than a cute little kitten before he starts kicking ass."

"What did Mitch tell you?" Mark interrupted before May could reply. Victor's expression turned back into a frown.

"Right. Well, I saw you die when I was watching Chaletwo. That was kind of creepy." He winced. "But Mitch stopped me at some point afterwards, I can't remember when, and he told me you'd been revived and Chaletwo had plans for you or something." He shrugged. "Wasn't very specific. I wasn't sure whether I believed him, but then you appeared on the camera." He pointed up to the ceiling above the door; Mark hadn't noticed before, but there was a security camera there pointed at the entrance back to the maze, presumably for showing the Gym leaders in the back room when challengers arrived. "So uh…" Victor went on quietly, "is it true?"

"Pretty much."

Victor nodded thoughtfully a few times. "All right," he said. "It's probably something important that I shouldn't get involved in, so let's leave it at that." He looked at May. "I assume you're involved too since Mark didn't ask you to leave."

"Often more involved than he is," May replied, and Mark couldn't really deny it.

Victor looked at both of them again. "Well, okay, then. It was good to see you again. I'm glad you're alive. I hope you get that Mutark, May." He took a deep breath. "And… good luck with whatever it is you're doing, I guess."

"Thanks," Mark replied. "We'll need it."

"Mutark's on Route 316, you say?" May asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh, and congratulations on the position," Mark suddenly remembered to say. "Assistant Gym leader is pretty awesome."

Victor beamed with pride. "Thanks. It's been my dream since I was little to own a Dark Gym. I don't quite own it yet, but I'm getting there." He winked.

"Congrats too," May said, "but how are we supposed to get out of here?"

Victor burst out laughing. "You just go down the trapdoor just over there and walk up the stairs. Oh, God, I swear, every single person who comes here asks that."

* * *

One trapdoor, a slide and a staircase later, Mark and May were back above ground and heading towards the Pokémon Center. The night seemed bright in comparison to the building they had just left; the streetlights appeared strangely blue after the orange firelight of the battle arena.

Mark grinned. "You know what I just realized?"

"What?"

"You were closer to losing than I was."

May glared at him. "That was stupid Vibrava being useless. I was hoping I could get him to evolve."

"But still."

"Shut up."

Mark just laughed as they stepped into the neon-lit building and onto the familiar fluffy, pink carpet.


	42. Return to Scorpio City

**Chapter 41: Return to Scorpio City**

Mark and May returned to the Pokémon Center the next morning after breakfast to retrieve their Pokémon while Alan checked them all out of the trainer hotel where they'd been staying through the night.

Nurse Joy handed May her Pokéballs and then turned to Mark with a frown. "You're the one with the Letal, aren't you?" she asked disapprovingly, thrusting five Pokéballs into his hand.

"What? Is she okay?" Mark was puzzled; he had never really heard of Nurse Joy being grumpy before.

"No, she is not okay!" the nurse responded angrily, almost shouting. A few people who were waiting looked their way to see what was going on. "I could heal her wounds, but she's severely overworked. Do you think that just because you have a Letal that's close to evolution you can make her go on fighting for however long you like even when she's dropping down with exhaustion?"

"What?" Mark repeated in disbelief. "She… she wanted to evolve! She asked me not to recall her!"

"You trainers are all the same, trying to blame the Pokémon," the nurse said fiercely. "She's young. An overgrown child. She doesn't know her own limits. Would you let her jump off a cliff if she thought she could fly?"

"No, but…"

"You took her away from her parents wherever you caught her. You need to come in their place and show some responsibility. No good trainer would let her keep fighting in the kind of state she's in."

Mark blushed, feeling eyes on him all around. "I'm sorry, but is she going to be all right?"

The nurse gave him a disapproving glare. "Oh, sure, but Pokémon that try to evolve when they don't have the energy go into a state of hormone and energy overdrive and it can have lasting effects. She might never be able to evolve now."

Mark stared at her, dumbfounded. She looked at him with resentful satisfaction. "That gets to you, doesn't it? No Letaligon for you? Well, it's about fifty-fifty, and I hope that bad fifty teaches you not to let your Pokémon overwork themselves whichever way it goes."

"So," Mark began carefully, "can I, uh… have her back?" He gestured vaguely at the unoccupied space on his Pokéball belt, feeling worse by the minute.

"We have to keep her for the rest of today," Nurse Joy said, her tone of voice making it apparent she would really rather not give Letal back to him at all. "You can get the nurse wherever you're at this evening to transfer her over."

"Okay," he said, turning back around, determined to get out of there as soon as possible. "Thanks. Let's go, May."

"Well," May commented as the automatic doors closed behind them, gesturing back towards the building, "somebody's in a bad mood today."

"She had a point," Mark mumbled, still in a bit of a shock. He had never been called a bad trainer before – not bad in this sense, anyway. "I should've recalled her anyway."

"Oh, come _on_, Mark," May said irritably. "What if you had? She'd have hated you for weeks, we'd never have found out it was actually dangerous to let her fight that long, and she'd have found some other opportunity to do something stupid. Letal overestimated herself; here's an experience to teach her that she has limits. That's how people learn things. How will she ever grow up if you just take on the role of an overprotective mom?" She threw him a sideways glance. "And you'd spend a couple of days sulking about how horrible and evil you are to your Pokémon since you recalled her when she didn't want it. Why are you making a big deal of _this_? I mean, it sucks both for her and for you if she loses the ability to evolve, but if that happens it's her fault, and if you start beating yourself up about it I think I'll have to slap you."

Mark wasn't sure he should be listening to her opinion about Pokémon abuse of all things, but his subconscious mind apparently didn't care and just eagerly jumped at the opportunity for some justification. Despite himself, he couldn't help feeling a little better.

But whoever was at fault, he didn't want to imagine how Letal would react if she were told she would never evolve after all this effort to do so. Although she had never said it straight out, she had been implying for a while now that she wanted to return to Ruxido once she evolved to her final form, and he had after all caught her on the condition that she would go back once he had 'made her strong'. To her, the entire experience of going with Mark, all her disturbing and unconventional battling methods and the way that she overworked herself and battled longer than she ought to, had been aiming towards this one goal, and now she would perhaps never reach it. She would take the news badly, but how badly? Request immediate release and go back to Ruxido, never to overcome her father? Become a lone wild Letal somewhere else? Decide in her shame to stay with him for good but lose all her enthusiasm now that she had no goal to strive towards?

And as much as he hated having the thought at just this moment, he had really wished she'd be a Letaligon by the time he got to the League. A lot of trainers had them, seeing as Leta were far easier to find than Pokémon like Dratini, Bagon or Larvitar but similarly powerful in their final stage, but unlike them, he also had a Dragonair who would possibly evolve before or during the League. That would have given him somewhat of an advantage to make up for not being as knowledgeable about attacks and abilities as somebody like May was. While there were unevolved pseudo-legendaries in the League, they were usually particularly enthusiastic fighters who were either looking forward to an upcoming evolution or had made a conscious choice to remain in this form – Letal would be neither.

He had the fleeting thought that maybe he could release her even if she didn't request it so that he could catch some other Pokémon and train it up instead, but shuddered at the thought and pushed it out of his head. That was something May would think, not him.

They didn't know yet whether Letal would be able to evolve or not, anyway; perhaps Letal wouldn't take it too badly as long as she knew she might still evolve as normal. Perhaps it would even make her more determined. Hadn't he heard about a psychological experiment at some point where the most effective method of getting someone to perform a repeated activity was to make the activity give rewards only sometimes and then randomly? It would be kind of similar in principle.

He wasn't sure he liked where his mind was going with this and they were stepping into the hotel lobby anyway. Alan was sitting there in a stylish purple sofa reading a newspaper, the kids' bags lying on the floor beside him.

"Hey, Alan," May said as she picked hers up and hoisted it onto her shoulders; Alan looked up, closed the newspaper and placed it on the low table in front of him. "Shall we get going?"

Mark picked up his bag as well. "They say there's going to be a storm in the afternoon," Alan said as he stood up, indicating the folded newspaper on the table. "We should probably get to Scorpio City and then wait it off there. Probably stay the night."

May shrugged. "Fine by me. I want to find myself a Mutark anyway, so more time around Scorpio City is great. I don't know how long it'll take me to find one, even with Tyranitar out."

"Sounds fine to me too," Mark said, but lightly prodded at Chaletwo in his head for approval.

_"Now that I can concentrate on only one dragon who was too far away to feel anything through his sleep when we were fighting the other two, we're not in that much of a hurry to get to Polaryu,"_ the legendary Pokémon replied. _"I've got him covered for now. Staying one night somewhere won't hurt."_

They walked out of the Pokémon Center and back onto the boring Route 315, but soon took a left turn down a steep, rocky hill to be faced with Route 317. It was an overall upwards slope with a rough road heading straight ahead; the landscape on the sides was rather bland, consisting of rugged, moss-covered rocks with some grass in between. There was a flock of Pidgey looking at them from a short distance away.

"So Mutark are around here…" May muttered, grabbing a Pokéball from her necklace. "Tyranitar, go!"

The white light that came out of the ball materialized into the shape of the green dinosaur, who looked around for an opponent but found none; the flock of Pidgey took off towards the south with startled shrieks. He turned to May.

"Just walk with us," she said. "Supposedly just you being here will help get the Mutark out."

Tyranitar nodded and walked along with the group, which made Mark notice that the Ninetales, whom he had grown accustomed to seeing trotting by May's side, was missing.

"Where's Spirit?"

"Hm? Oh, I figured having a Pokémon out could scare the Mutark away. I mean, having a Dark-type out attracts them for some reason, but other Pokémon could just weigh against that."

Mark shrugged. He looked briefly at some rocks by the roadside and could have sworn he saw yellow eyes blink in the darkness underneath one of them.

"I think you're attracting them already."

She stopped and turned; he pointed at the rock. She approached it carefully, peering at the shadows under it for a few seconds.

"Let's keep walking until one comes out on its own accord," she said finally. "We can't dig under the rocks."

They continued warily, keeping an eye on the shadows. Mark saw a few more pairs of eyes shining in the darkness for a second before they disappeared again. Finally, when they were passing a large rock, the head of a black kitten peeked out from underneath it and walked cautiously towards them, staring at Tyranitar as if in a trance.

Mark was about to point it out, but a glance from May silenced him. He watched it come nearer and nearer as they walked on as if they hadn't noticed anything. Then suddenly –

"Tyranitar, get it!" May shouted, and the Mutark only had time to freeze in its tracks before the dinosaur Pokémon reached down, picked it up in his jaws and threw it across the road. It let out a shrill, mewling cry as it flew through the air and bounced a few times on the rocky ground. Alan stared at May in horror.

"Oh, come on," she said, plucking another ball from her Pokéball necklace. "It's a Dark Pokémon. It only looks like a kitten to fool you."

She threw the ball into the air. "Butterfree, Sleep Powder!"

As the Mutark rose to its feet and shook its head, the butterfly Pokémon formed in the air and flapped her wings powerfully. Sparkling, green dust drifted down towards the ground; the Mutark looked at it with kittenlike curiosity in its eyes, rose to its hind legs and started batting at it with a paw. Mark couldn't help finding it adorable, despite knowing what it could turn into, as the Mutark wavered drunkenly on its feet and then collapsed in the grass, fast asleep.

May fished an Ultra Ball out of her pocket and hurled it at the creature. As it made contact, the catlike form turned a translucent red and was drawn into the ball.

The black and yellow Pokéball wobbled on the ground and then stilled with a ping.

May frowned as she walked towards it. "That was too easy," she said. "It's probably low-leveled."

"That doesn't matter," Alan said immediately.

"Yes, I know, I know," May said irritably. She held her Pokédex up to the ball.

"Mutark, kitten Pokémon," said the electronic voice of the device. "These Dark Pokémon have the peculiarity of growing in both size and ferocity when they taste their own blood. They hunt in groups after harming one another sufficiently to grow to the desired size to deal with their prey."

"People still don't know the exact nature of their transformation when it comes to their personality," Alan said. "They always act sweet and innocent when they're in their kitten form. Nobody knows if it's a conscious deception or if their mind really regresses to an infantile stage while they're in this form. If it's the latter, it's questionable whether it can be considered right to make them battle at all."

May looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Interesting," she said before looking back at her Pokédex. "Female, level sixteen." She sighed. "Great."

She sent the Pokéball to the PC, recalled Tyranitar and Butterfree and replaced their balls on her necklace. After a moment of thought, she brought out another one, which Mark initially assumed to be Spirit's.

"Vibrava, go."

The antlion Pokémon formed on the ground and looked questioningly at his trainer.

"I'm getting fed up with you being at a lower level than the rest of my team," she said. "You could have lost me that Gym battle. The Pokémon around here are hopefully something you can handle. I don't care how long it takes. You're evolving today."

"May…" Alan began.

"You keep out of it!" May snapped at him. "What, is it cruel to train your Pokémon now?"

"Maybe Vibrava doesn't want to evolve or he's tired."

"I'm fine," the Pokémon chimed in, his antennae twitching. "And evolving would be nice."

May glared at Alan in an I-told-you-so manner and he threw his arms up in defeat. "Fine. Fine. I just thought you should ask. Let's get going and get to Scorpio City before that storm starts, okay?"

This whole thing kind of killed the mood for any further conversation, and for the rest of their southwards journey up the gentle slope, the only words spoken were May's snappy commands ordering Vibrava to attack the various wild Pokémon they came across while dark clouds gathered in the sky. At last they reached the highest peak of the mountain on that side and could look directly down into Scorpion Valley, the city below and the stretches of the Black Desert.

"All right," May said. "You guys can go on. I'm going to train Vibrava until he evolves. I'll see you at the Pokémon Center later."

Alan looked doubtfully at her, but didn't say anything.

"Goodbye, then," Mark said with a shrug. "See you."

"Watch out for the storm," Alan muttered as he followed Mark down the zigzagging path that lay down the steep mountainside. May probably didn't even hear him.

"She worries me sometimes," Alan said after a minute or two. "I don't know what kind of effect her treatment could have on her Pokémon."

"Effect?" Mark replied without looking around. "Aren't there a ton of trainers like her out there? I mean, she's not exactly exemplary, but I can't see anything she does as being particularly traumatizing. Lapras doesn't like her for a number of reasons, but all her other Pokémon don't really seem to mind that much. You saw Vibrava."

"Well, she's not that much worse than most wild Pokémon expect trainers to be," Alan said, "but the image of trainers that an average wild Pokémon has is just a person who'll guide them in battle, teach them strategies and techniques, help them evolve, take them to new places, heal them between battles and eventually release them. The only reason her Pokémon put up with it is that they weren't expecting to make a lifelong friend anyway. They're just in it for the quick training."

Mark shrugged. "Why can't they be in it for that? Letal is in it for that, no matter how nice I try to be to her."

He had intended for it to be just a casual mention, but now that he had reminded himself of Letal's situation, it was starting to bother him again. The fact he was now alone with Alan made it worse.

"Well, at least you _are_ nice to her," Alan replied. "You don't call her stupid or useless or decide without asking her that you're going to evolve her."

Mark was going to ask Alan's opinion on whether he should have kept Letal out or not, but somehow it just came out as, "Letal might never evolve now."

"What? Why?"

"She was too exhausted in the Gym battle for the evolution to happen. She just glowed and then it faded again and she collapsed. Nurse Joy said she was in hormonal overdrive or something and this could screw up her chances of evolution for good."

"How'd she ever get that worn out?" Alan asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. "I mean, I've heard of it happening, but the Pokémon needs to be literally dying of exhaustion."

"It amazed me too," Mark just said, looking back at Alan. "She was fighting for longer than any other Pokémon in that battle. There was a point where she seemed to be about to drop down and I was going to recall her, but she refused. She got up like three times when she should have fainted and just kept going. And then that… I think it was after Diana's Tyranitar threw her into a wall."

Alan shook his head. "She shouldn't have kept going that long. It's crazy. You know that Pokémon evolved fainting as a precaution to prevent them from inflicting life-threatening injuries on one another in a friendly fight? It's like a switch in their head – in one mode they'll automatically fall unconscious given a certain level of pain or injury, and in the other they'll fight to the death. Normally they couldn't switch it voluntarily even if they tried, but she did it. She could have died."

This did not help Mark feel better at all. "Nurse Joy told me off for not recalling her anyway. She said I should have known better than to let her do that to herself."

Alan looked at him for a second, considering it. They were almost down to the city now. "Well, it's a bit of a tough situation," he said finally. "But seeing as you probably didn't know it was dangerous to her, it's a bit hard to point to you as the one at fault. She probably didn't know it either. It's nobody's fault. It's just good she's okay."

"She'll be upset if she can't evolve," Mark said. "It's always been really important to her."

"Well, there's not much you can do about that if it happens."

Mark sighed as they stepped down onto the concrete floor of Scorpio City's main street. "I think I'm going to check on the Gym and talk to Mitch if I can. Can you get rooms for us?"

"Sure," Alan replied with a shrug and headed towards the Pokémon Center as Mark continued along the main street. The Gym building was on the right close to the entrance into the desert; it was a simple single-storey concrete building painted deep purple with GYM on the front in large, white letters. The memory of himself seeing that building for the first time, scared out of his wits with May lying unconscious beside him, popped into his head. And as if just to creep him out, the moment he turned around he found the silver-haired Gym leader standing there just as he had that fateful evening. Mark jumped, not having expected to see him there.

"Hello, Mark," Mitch said softly.

"I wanted to talk," Mark said, feeling the questions try to burst out of his brain now that Mitch was actually standing in front of him.

The Gym leader nodded. "Let's go inside. They say a storm is coming on."

The two of them entered the Gym building; Mark experienced another déjà vu seeing the three corridors leading from the small entrance hall and knew that they were going to the right. They stepped through the wooden door into the tidy living room with the navy-and-gold carpet and sat down in two of the three brown leather couches surrounding the small coffee table. It was all almost bizarrely familiar; he couldn't believe what a short time it had been since he had last been there, fearing for May's life.

"So," Mitch said, one hand rubbing his chin as he kept to his old habit of looking up while he talked instead of at the person he was speaking to. "You wanted to talk to me."

"How do you know all that stuff?"

Mitch gave him a sideways glance. "What stuff?"

"We were at the Acaria City Gym yesterday. Victor was there. He told us you'd told him I was alive and Chaletwo had plans for me. I knew you'd seen me alive back in Ruxido, but even then you were there like you'd been expecting me. And I never told you anything about Chaletwo."

Mitch rubbed his forehead. "It's all a bit hard to explain."

"Well, do it anyway," Mark said, finding his temper rising suddenly. "Because to be honest, this is freaking me out. And in Ruxido you distracted me with some stuff about biology before I had the sense to ask."

The Gym leader chuckled. "Sorry. It wasn't meant as a distraction."

Mark didn't respond. He just waited. Mitch glanced at him and took a few deep breaths.

"Ever since Scorplack stung me that day, I've had these feelings. I don't know much. They're never specific. The first time I saw you and May, I felt like there was something wrong. I saw you die at the Pokémon Festival and had an immediate feeling Chaletwo had done it because he needed you for something. I had a feeling I would see you in a particular spot in Ruxido so I went there. That is all I know that has to do with you."

"What kinds of 'feelings' are these?"

Mitch rubbed his eyes with his hands, something about the gesture making him seem like he was very uncomfortable. "They're hard to describe. It's like when you look at someone and observe that they're beautiful or that they have dark hair. But I observe something more that's not based on what I see."

Mark looked at him for a few seconds, trying to make sense of this.

"I can teleport," Mitch suddenly said, his voice almost bitter. "I can affect people's dreams. I can sense powerful emotions from afar. And I don't have the faintest idea why." He held his right hand over his eyes and shook his head. "I think I'm going insane."

"Why would…" Mark began, but Mitch suddenly looked up, straight into his eyes, and the wild, frantic gaze of his faintly bluish-gray eyes somehow made Mark forget what he was going to say.

"I've been having more of these," Mitch whispered, his eyes shining with uncertainty and fear. "I used to get feelings only occasionally, but now I can't look at anything without having some bizarre feeling about it. Other people's emotions keep me awake at night. Am I just finally losing it after the near-death experience? Have you experienced something like this?"

Mark shook his head, stunned, and Mitch broke their eye contact as suddenly as he had begun it. He leant back in his chair with a sigh and looked out the window; it was starting to rain. "Sorry. You're troubled enough already without me trying to pile all this on you too."

Mark realized dimly that his anger had completely vanished. In fact, now he felt intensely sorry for Mitch, particularly so because while Mark was also carrying a burden of his own, at least he knew why. Unfortunately he knew no more than Mitch did about the strange powers that were plaguing him.

"I'm sorry," he said finally in a quiet voice. "I have no idea what's happening to you." And then he had an idea that made his heart jump.

_Chaletwo?_ he thought. _Have you been listening to all of this?_

_"Yes,"_ came the reply. _"But I'm afraid I don't know what's wrong with him. I don't know of anything similar happening to anyone. And while I could maybe try to help it if I had more of my strength, I'm pretty useless right now."_

Mitch looked at Mark and he immediately had the feeling the Gym leader knew he had been talking to Chaletwo. But neither of them said anything.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything more useful," Mitch said at last. "You should probably get over to the Pokémon Center until the storm is over."

Mark nodded and stood up. "Sorry about barging in here and pressing you about all this," he said. "I hope you… figure it out."

And with that, Mark left the Gym and ran through the rain towards the warmth of the Pokémon Center.


	43. Splitting Up

**Chapter 42: Splitting Up**

There were a number of other trainers in the Scorpio City Pokémon Center, waiting for the storm to subside. Nurse Joy of Scorpio City, far nicer than her cousin in Acaria City, had pointed the bookshelves in one corner out to Alan while Mark had been talking to Mitch, and after Alan had relayed the message to Mark, the two of them spent most of the afternoon reading in the comfortable couches while listening to the rain beat on the windows outside. Mark had a bit of a hard time concentrating at first because he was still a little spooked; he didn't tell Alan what Mitch had told him, the conversation somehow having marked itself as a secret in his head, and Alan never actually asked. Eventually, however, he managed to sink himself into the book – it was a cheesy novel about legendaries and destinies, which he felt a bit weird to read now, but it was nicely captivating – and didn't look up again until the door to the Pokémon Center was flung open with a loud noise around half past six.

May stood in the doorway, soaked wet from head to toe. Her blue hair draped messily over her shoulders and she was shivering with cold.

"May!" Alan blurted out as he saw her. "Are you insane? Why were you out that long in the rain? You're freezing."

"Thanks, Mom," May replied and rolled her eyes, slamming the door behind her and walking towards where the boys were sitting while water dripped off her onto the carpet. "It was worth it," she said, a triumphant smile on her face as she sat down on the corner of Mark's sofa. A dark, wet spot immediately formed around where she was sitting. "Vibrava's a Flygon now, and he's level fifty-four. And he knows Dragon Claw. And I taught him Earthquake."

Mark looked around for a bookmark, tore a piece from one page of a newspaper that was lying on a nearby table and put it into his book before closing it. "Did you train Mutark too?"

She shook her head. "I'll see what I can do with Mutark when we get to Champion Island. We'll have a month and a half to prepare for the League, after all, and there are Pokémon of all sorts of levels on there." She looked around at both of them. "What were you doing while I was out there?"

"Reading," Alan replied, raising the still-open book he was holding briefly. "And Mark went to see Mitch."

May looked at him. "What did he say?"

"He didn't really know anything," Mark said, still not wanting to tell them about the full extent of the Gym leader's mysterious powers. "As Victor said, he just gets these feelings. All he knew about what we were doing was that he had a feeling Chaletwo needed me for something when he killed me. He doesn't know what it's about or anything."

May shrugged. "Okay. Then we won't have to worry about him."

"Anybody else hungry?" Mark asked to change the subject. "We haven't eaten since those cold beans for lunch."

"I'm starving too," May said and nodded, looking around. "Do they sell food here or do we need to go out?"

"We can ask Joy," Alan said, "but while we do that, you're changing out of your wet clothes."

May retreated to her room with a grumble after Alan had told her the room number, and the boys walked up to the counter.

Nurse Joy gave them a polite bow. "How can I help you?"

"Where could we buy food?" Alan asked her.

The nurse pointed to the door and the heavy rain outside it. "There's a place just across the street. Cheap, casual restaurant for trainers, open only during the high season, but that's now." She smiled. "Anything else?"

"We'll be fine, thanks," Alan said and turned back to Mark. "We wait for May, then."

She was back in a minute or two, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white jacket that, as far as Mark could see, was exactly identical to the one she'd been wearing before.

"Hey, apparently there's a restaurant for trainers across the street," Alan told her.

May blinked. "So uh… I'm going out into the rain again? When I just changed into something dry?"

"It's across the street. Can't be that bad."

The restaurant was decent, and although May was a little grumpy while they waited for their food, she started cheering up once they'd received their orders. She spent the rest of the dinner going on about her plans for the League and how she needed another Water-type (Alan gave her one of his looks as she brought this up and she changed the subject).

Finally they returned to the Pokémon Center, Alan went with May to the bookcases, and Mark told them he was going to get Letal back and talk to her.

He walked up to the counter and took a deep breath as Nurse Joy turned to face him. "Excuse me. Can you contact the Acaria City Pokémon Center and ask if my Letal has recovered?"

"Of course," she said with a smile before turning to the videophone behind her. She dialled a number with quick, precise motions and a second passed before Nurse Joy of Acaria City appeared on the screen.

"What is it?" she asked, looking tired.

"This boy was asking about his Letal."

The nurse on the screen glanced at Mark and frowned as she recognized him. "Oh, it's you," she said. "Yes, I've finished treating your Letal. She's asleep. I guess you want her back now, huh?"

Mark just nodded, hoping desperately that the nurse would not bring up why she had been in such a bad state. Thankfully, she just disappeared off-screen for a few seconds and then returned, holding a Pokéball.

"Here she is. And don't let this happen again."

"I won't."

The ball fell out of a tube beside the screen, and as the screen of the videophone turned blank again, Nurse Joy picked it up and handed it to Mark. "I'm glad your Pokémon is okay," she said in a voice that somehow managed to make Mark feel bad about the fact she didn't know what had happened. He just nodded, mumbled some words of thanks and turned back to the corridor on the right which led to the rooms. He entered his, closed the door, and sent Letal out on the bed.

She came out of the ball sleeping with her head resting on one of her crossed forelegs, but quickly sensed the change of environment and opened her eyes. She looked at Mark and lifted her head. "What is it?"

"So you're… okay?" Mark said, not sure how to get to the subject at hand.

"I didn't evolve," she said gloomily. "I almost managed it, but I didn't have the energy to go through with it."

She didn't know.

"About that," Mark began, biting his lip. "The nurse who treated you said that… because of that, you might never evolve at all."

Letal looked blankly at him. Mark waited a few seconds for a response but got none.

"It's some hormone thing," he went on. "Supposedly it's about fifty-fifty that you'll manage to evolve later."

"And if not?" Letal asked, her voice a little shaky.

"If not… you'll never be a Letaligon."

The way she stared at him in a mixture of disbelief, dread and regret expressed more than words ever could have. In a way he was relieved that she didn't say anything; it made him feel more sympathetic to be able to just look at her and try to understand her feelings rather than be hit with questions he couldn't answer.

Then her expression hardened and she looked away. "I'll evolve," she said quietly. "I don't care about the odds."

"You might not be able to," Mark said softly.

Letal shook her head. "I'll do it. No matter what. If I'm tense enough, I'll…"

"You're not doing that again," Mark interrupted her as he realized what she was thinking. "You could have died. Please, Letal, just let yourself faint when you're about to collapse. If you can evolve, you will evolve. Just don't do anything stupid."

She glared at him. "If I don't evolve, what's the point of all this? Why would I go with you if I'll be a Letal for good?"

"You don't know that you'll be a Letal for good. Maybe you'll evolve normally. Most Pokémon don't need to make the kind of effort you made to evolve."

"But maybe I won't."

Mark sighed. "There is nothing we can do about that now. We can just train and hope." And, without really thinking about it, the selfish part of him added, "And the best place to train if you really want to become strong and evolve is if we go to the League."

Letal laid her head down on the bed and chuckled softly. "You think I'm that naïve, do you? You think I can't tell you just want a Letaligon for yourself? Didn't we agree that I would go back to Ruxido when I was strong enough?"

Mark took a deep breath. "We're going to Champion Island tomorrow. I can release you now if you want. But there is a chance you could evolve if we take you with us to the League, and if you do that you can't bail out on us halfway through. After the League, we'll go back to Ruxido and release you then, whether you've evolved or not. Deal?"

She looked at him for a moment, considering it, and then turned away. "Deal," she said quietly but firmly. "I'm coming with you. But when we get to Ruxido again, we part ways."

Mark just nodded, not sure what else to say. "Okay, then," he said finally. "So you'll be all right?"

Letal gave him a glance. "That depends."

He sighed. "Look, maybe you'll evolve and maybe you won't, and if you don't, you should just get over it and stop obsessing so much over trying to please that jerk father of yours, okay?"

She stared at him for a few moments. "Please him, huh?" she then replied with a cold chuckle.

"That's how I understood it."

"I'm going to kill him," Letal spat. "And then I'll watch my shiny siblings slaughter one another for that stupid, meaningless leadership before I leave the herd again and see if I can find another one."

Mark stared at her in dumbfounded surprise. Whatever he'd been expecting, this was not it. He had always kind of identified with Letal, what with having parent problems of his own, which made the realization that she was thoroughly messed up after all feel more personal than it ought to. He reminded himself that she really wasn't any worse than Scyther or Gyarados per se and that it was none of his business if Pokémon had disturbing ideologies, but couldn't really feel convinced.

Mark took a deep breath. "Well, I guess you're fine, then," he said, took her Pokéball back out and watched her dissolve into a shape of translucent red and disappear into the ball.

He replaced the ball on his belt and stood there for a moment before forcibly straightening himself and pushing the matter into the quarantined 'Let's Think about This Later' area of his brain. He went back to the main hall of the Pokémon Center, where both May and Alan were now reading, and spent the rest of the evening finishing his book. (Mark felt oddly cheered up when the main characters succeeded in saving the world at the end.) After that, it was getting late and Alan had already gone to bed, so he replaced the book on the shelf, said goodnight to May and retreated to his room to go to bed.

He dreamt something about Letal killing his father and his mother sobbing over the coffin while Mark stood over Suicune's body and attempted unsuccessfully to make her notice his existence so she could help him drag it into the woods.

* * *

"Get up already. We need to go."

"Mmmh," Mark mumbled, pulling his blanket tighter around him while not entirely awake enough to properly register the words.

"Wake up, you Slakoth," the girl's voice said a little louder. It was coming from the doorway. Mark forced his eyes open and blinked a few times. He could see May, silhouetted against the bright light of the corridor, folding her arms.

"I'm coming," he mumbled and dug his face into his pillow. The next thing he knew was a harsh knock that snapped him awake again.

"It's been fifteen minutes since you said you were coming!" May shouted from the other side. "What are you doing in there?"

He bolted awake, shook his head and sat up. "Sorry," he called back. "I fell asleep again."

Mark got ready as quickly as he could and then joined with May and Alan outside his room, where they had clearly been waiting for a little while. He was still feeling a bit foggy after the night; he hadn't slept very well.

"We're still heading to Merville, right?" he asked to make sure there hadn't been some sort of a sudden change of plan as he slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah," Alan replied. "And then we'll split up, I guess."

"Are there ferries going to Champion Island already?" Mark asked.

"No," May responded. "Not until July. I'll to talk to Lapras about it."

Alan gave her a doubtful glance but said nothing.

"Are we going to get some breakfast?" Mark asked hopefully, his stomach growling.

"Supposedly that restaurant we went to yesterday serves breakfast," May replied. "Hence the whole waking-up-right-now thing."

"Oh," Mark answered stupidly, giving himself a mental slap. "Well, what are we waiting for, then?"

* * *

After breakfast, they headed east out of town, up one of the mountain ranges that surrounded Scorpion Valley, and out onto the plains beyond. From there they could see the beautifully straight path descend steadily across a field of tall grass towards a small collection of houses – Merville, where they were headed. Sunlight reflected off the soft waves in the ocean behind the town, reminding Mark what kind of a journey was ahead of them.

It was a quiet walk down to the village. Alan still seemed to be concerned about May's treatment of her Pokémon, and she returned it by not attempting to talk to him. Meanwhile, Mark's mind kept drifting to Letal and the rather uncomfortable idea that in a couple of months' time, he would be releasing her into Ruxido in the knowledge that she was going to murder her own father. Which, no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't help feeling he would be somewhat responsible for. And the idea of being responsible for someone's death, even 'somewhat' and even if it was a Pokémon that apparently saw things differently, was not very pleasant. But how could he prevent it? Refuse to release Letal in Ruxido even after he had promised that he would? He couldn't really see attempting to convince her to change her mind as being likely to do any good.

Of course, evolution had made Charmeleon grow out of wanting to murder Scyther. Who was to say Letal wouldn't be the same once she was a Letaligon? Provided, of course, that she did become a Letaligon at all. Which made Mark realize that still he didn't know what Letal would do if he released her in Ruxido and she was still a Letal. By the time they reached the village, he had concluded that the whole situation was far too much of a headache to think about it now and instead occupied his mind with random details of the plot of the book he'd been reading.

"So, we're here," May said as they finally entered the village and looked around. Mark saw the dirty, wooden shack by the harbour that pronounced itself to be a shop with a hand-painted sign above the door; he chuckled at the memory of the overenthusiastic shopkeeper. This time, however, there was a number of trainers around; some were feeding their Water Pokémon in the harbour while others walked in and out of the shop, sparing the newcomers barely a passing glance. It made sense; after all, this was when most trainers were journeying, as opposed to Mark and May's early start.

"We'd better get a Waterfall HM so we can get onto the island," May said. "Or that's what I heard, at least."

Mark nodded to confirm that; Champion Island had cliffs on all sides of it, and the official way to enter it was by swimming up a waterfall, although trainers were known to fly there on occasion.

May was looking at him in a thoughtful manner. "Hey, you can teach it to Gyarados," she said. "They're much better with physical attacks than special ones, so it'll pay in the long run."

Mark shrugged. "Sounds good."

"…And, well, Lapras isn't staying anyway," she added before sighing. "Mark, can you go buy that HM?"

"Sure."

He entered the store, presuming that May would talk to Lapras in the meantime. The bearded, middle-aged shopkeeper, who had been visibly shrivelling up with boredom the last time Mark had been there, was enthusiastically showing two trainers something on one of the shelves on the other side of the room. The man looked up, hastened to tell the bewildered customers that he would be right back, and scuttled with uncanny agility over to the counter where Mark was.

"What can I do for you, boy? Aquarium City, is it? You're in the right place! We've got everything from…"

"Uh, it's Champion Island, actually."

The shopkeeper stopped short in surprise for a split second, but was back to his babbly self before Mark could blink. "Oh! I see! This early? Marvellous, marvellous! You have to understand, at this time of the year everyone is going to Aquarium City. Now, I presume you want an HM07, right? Or are you one of those poor saps without a Water-type and need HM02 instead?" He looked expectantly at Mark.

"Just… whichever one Waterfall is?" he said doubtfully.

"That's 07 for you," said the shopkeeper, stretching his hand out to one of the shelves behind him and taking out a CD case while simultaneously punching numbers into the cash register. "That will be 3,000."

Mark handed him his trainer card and took the CD case instead. The front cover was decorated with a picture of a Gyarados racing up a mighty waterfall.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," the shopkeeper said, handing him his card back before darting back to the two trainers who had been waiting.

Mark pocketed the card and walked out of the store to find May and Alan shouting at one another by the harbor.

"…what's wrong with asking?"

"Suddenly asking her to do something for you now is demanding!"

"No, it's not!"

May's knuckles tightened around the Pokéball in her right hand while Alan, standing a few meters away, folded his arms. Mark took a doubtful step forward.

"Some people can't say no to a request!"

"That's their problem!"

"It is your problem here because keeping a Pokémon that wants to be released is abuse!"

"That's why I'm giving her a choice!"

"Um, guys?" Mark asked carefully. Both of them turned their heads quickly towards him.

"He doesn't want me to ask Lapras if she can take us over to Champion Island," May said. "Even though there are no ferries until July and I don't think Gyarados is the best choice of a Pokémon to Surf on over great distances."

"But you know she wants to be released and doesn't want to do anything for you," Alan protested before looking expectantly up at Mark as if hoping for him to pass some sort of judgement. He looked awkwardly between the two of them.

"Um, well…" He thought over it for a few seconds and couldn't help being reminded of the Letal issue, which really gave him only one option that would not make him the world's biggest hypocrite. "It can't hurt to ask, can it? I mean, if it means we'll get to Polaryu earlier… We'll just have to make it clear she has a choice, that's all."

Alan threw his arms in hopeless defeat. "Fine. You ask her."

May nodded emphatically, giving Alan a grudging glare as she threw the Pokéball in her hand. The large Water Pokémon emerged from the ball in a burst of white light. She looked slowly around, avoiding May's gaze as she wagged softly up and down on the ocean waves.

"So," May said after a few seconds of silence. "The sea. We're here."

"Can I leave now?" Lapras asked quietly.

"About that." May took a deep breath as Lapras watched her warily. "See, we need to get to Champion Island as soon as possible in order to fight Polaryu, and to do that we kind of need you."

"They don't need you," Alan chimed in.

"Well, not quite need, but it would be one hell of a lot more convenient." May gave Alan another quick glare. "So, well, could you do us a favour and take us there?"

There was a long silence. Lapras looked down at the water below her. "And what when we get there?" she asked quietly. "Will you ask me to stay there to take you back? To help fight Polaryu? Will you ever really let me go?"

"That's what I was trying to tell her," Alan shot in.

"Look," May responded, a hint of anger touching her words even though she was obviously trying her best to keep it away, "you can say I'm too harsh or not personal enough or too competitive for your taste or whatever, but if I make a deal, I keep it. Don't you dare accuse me of being something I'm not."

"It's up to you," Mark said, feeling that hadn't been made clear enough so far. "Whatever you want, we'll go along with it."

"But the easiest way for us to get to Polaryu is if you take us," May added immediately.

Lapras stared out at the vast expanse of ocean stretching out to the southeast for a few seconds. Finally, she said, "All right, I will take you. On two conditions."

May raised her eyebrows. "Go on."

"First, I'm leaving the moment we're there. I will never go into your Pokéball again."

May nodded, her face not showing any emotion. "Okay."

Lapras's expression hardened. "And I'm still not fighting for you. If you want to catch a Pokémon, you will have to send out someone else to do the fighting, and if I need to defend myself, I will not go out of my way to keep you safe while I do."

"Deal."

Lapras nodded and May looked back at Alan, who didn't seem very happy but nonetheless did not object. Mark's gaze shifted between the two of them.

"So well," he said, "we're going to Champion Island now, right?"

May nodded. "Yeah."

Alan hesitated, looking uncomfortably at Lapras, but then sighed heavily. "Okay, then. You have my number, so you can call me and arrange a meet-up when the League is over… I guess." He turned to Mark. "Right. So all that's left is, well, Molzapart."

"Oh, that." Mark frowned; he had forgotten about the intention to have Molzapart psychically link to Alan and wasn't quite sure how they were going to achieve it now, what with being in a town where they couldn't exactly send him out. He looked around.

"Chaletwo," he said, "would it be too risky to just go behind the store or something?"

_"Hmm,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"A bit, but I suppose it can't be helped very easily. At least it won't take too long, and you can try to stand in the line of sight."_

They walked behind the wooden house and faced the wall. Mark took out his Pokédex, logged on to the PC system, found Molzapart and switched him to his party. He looked quickly around to make sure no one was looking before dropping the ball onto the ground. The shape of the giant bird emerged in front of them

_"All right,_ Molzapart," Chaletwo said as the bird jerked his fiery head in Mark's direction. _"Link to Alan so you can be recalled, and then I'll explain."_

Mark hadn't actually realized that Molzapart didn't yet know about their plans. He picked the Pokéball back up from the ground as a purple glow flashed in Molzapart's eyes, and before he had even had the time to properly appreciate what the bird looked like again, Molzapart was just a translucent red shape disappearing into the Pokéball. In a way it made him sad. The legendaries he had fought he had at least gotten a good look at (he forcibly pulled his mind away from the thought of Suicune which immediately popped into his head), but Molzapart and Chaletwo, the ones who were actually cooperating with him, were almost limited to the false memory of seeing them converse that was still burned into the back of his mind.

_"What is this about?"_ said a telepathic voice deeper than Chaletwo's. _"It had better be temporary. My powers are already weakening."_

_"The basic plan,"_ Chaletwo responded, _"is that Mark and May are going to Champion Island while Alan will go around Ouen to look for Rainteicune."_

_"Champion Island?"_ Molzapart asked sceptically. _"Why?"_

_"There's… a legendary there,"_ Chaletwo said. _"And in order not to make themselves look suspicious, they have to participate in the League while they're there."_

_"What legendary?"_

_"It doesn't matter,"_ Chaletwo replied in an irritated tone. _"Alan will tell you about it if you must know."_

_"Why is Alan involved? What about Ash? Who is this girl?"_

Mark almost laughed. Molzapart really knew nothing that had happened since Mark's resurrection. He could feel Chaletwo realizing it at the same time with a flash of irritation.

_"Look, they're assisting, all right? Alan will fill you in later. And before you ask, we've already gotten three legendaries out of the way."_

_"Which three?"_

_"Suicune and two others. Look, let's not waste my energy having me explain it to you, okay? All you need to know now is that if the two of you come across any legendaries other than Rainteicune, you should send some sort of general signal so I can hear it quickly bring them over for the battle."_

_"A general psychic signal?"_ Molzapart asked, his voice a little annoyed now. _"That any of the legendaries can feel? Are you insane?"_

_"It's not like they could read much into it."_

Mark had the fleeting thought that they must look extremely stupid now, standing there gravely in perfect silence behind a store and staring at one another.

Molzapart let out a psychic sigh. _"I suppose I will learn the details from Alan later. Is that all there is to the plan?"_

_"At the moment, yes."_

_"Well, that's reassuring."_

_"Skip the sarcasm. Which of us is the one who actually knows what's going on again?"_

"Can't we just get going now?" May interrupted before Molzapart had the time to answer. "You're wasting our time having a petty argument."

There was a second of silence. Then, _"She's right. We should get going to Champion Island."_

_"Let's hope I never have to send that help call,"_ Molzapart replied disdainfully, and the legendaries said no more, apparently deciding they had no need for further goodbyes.

"So, Alan," Mark said, looking at the older boy and somehow feeling a bit uncomfortable about him being about to leave them alone for a journey across the sea. "Goodbye, I guess. See you when the League is over."

Alan nodded. "Goodbye. Take care." He turned to May. "And at least try to be decent to Lapras before she leaves, okay?"

"Of course I'll be decent to her," May responded irritably as if the idea of her not being so was some sort of an absurdity. She turned to the giant Water Pokémon who was still waiting calmly by the dock and then back to Alan again. "Bye. I'll call you after the League."

May stepped down onto the back of Lapras's bumpy shell and sat down behind the Pokémon's neck. Lapras gave her an uncomfortable glance, but just said, "Aren't you coming too, Mark?"

He gave Alan a quick smile and climbed onto the Pokémon's back himself, settling down behind May. "Goodbye, Alan," he said again as Lapras turned around; he found himself losing his balance and had to quickly grab hold of some of the blunt spikes sticking out of the shell beside him.

"Goodbye, guys," Alan called as the Pokémon began to move away. "Have fun."

As Mark waved, May just stared angrily at the back of Lapras's neck with her arms folded. Alan waved half-heartedly in return for a second and then turned towards the road back to Scorpio City without looking back.


	44. To Champion Island

**Chapter 43: To Champion Island**

_Alan will fill him in, huh?_

The start of their journey across the calm sea was none too interesting, and it was all too quickly dawning onto Mark that this would be a long, long day, especially since May still seemed to be in a bad mood and hadn't said a word to him since they'd set off. Lapras occasionally glanced over her shoulder at them, but never spoke. There was little to do other than staring at the sunny hills behind them or out at the endless stretch of deep blue ocean ahead – that and talking to Chaletwo.

_"I know,"_ the legendary Pokémon replied in his head, the voice pained. _"What could I do? I didn't really realize how little he knew until he was out there."_

_I noticed you seemed really bent on not mentioning the dragons,_ Mark mused. _Why is that? I mean, you had no problems telling May and Alan about them or letting me tell everybody in Crater Town, even if leaving out where they came from._

_"You can tell a human there are legendary Pokémon they don't know about,"_ was the frustrated reply. _"But Molzapart knows there aren't supposed to be any Dragons of Ouen. He'd start asking questions."_

Right. That made sense. _And if Alan is going to discuss it with him, they'll put two and two together, since he has definitely noticed how much more you seem to care about them than about somebody like Suicune. Gotcha._

And now he'd brought up the memory of Suicune again. He hated himself sometimes.

_"It's not that I don't care about Suicune,"_ Chaletwo responded grudgingly. _"But now that he's dead, what can we do but go on? Of course I'd try to prevent it if I knew he was in danger, but…"_

_But if you happen to accidentally allow somebody to kill him, it's no big deal, right?_ Mark was getting angrier than he had intended; the last thing the sensible part of him wanted was to get into another argument about Suicune's fate.

_"Please just drop it, Mark,"_ Chaletwo replied, and the pain in the creature's voice made him abruptly much more sympathetic. _"It won't get us anywhere to dwell on it. Suicune died. It was terrible, but none of us could have predicted it. We can't change anything now. We have to think about all that's yet to be done."_

Mark nodded decisively. "So," he said out loud, "where in Champion Cave is Polaryu precisely?"

May looked over her shoulder at him as Chaletwo replied. _"He's in an underground chamber. Pretty deep. When he breaks out, it'll be in that icy valley."_

Mark nodded; the interior of Champ Mountain was a cold place, and supposedly one path that could be taken to the League included a stretch of going from one cave exit to another through a frozen valley, home to a number of Ice Pokémon.

Something clicked into place in his head.

"Wait," May said, voicing his thoughts, "don't tell me that thing's the reason Champion Cave is icy."

Chaletwo hesitated in a way that did not bode well. _"I can't claim to know for certain, but it would make sense."_

May raised her eyebrows. "I wonder how long it will take us to set a world record as causes of natural disasters."

_"If this all works out, we can make a deal with Articuno to drop by on occasion or something."_

Articuno. Mark felt another painful sting in his stomach. "Provided he's not the one draining your energy and trying to destroy the world."

_"Whether he is or isn't, he presumably won't be anymore by that time."_

Articuno, the Destroyer. Mark couldn't get it to make sense in his head. It seemed so _wrong_, somehow. And, he reminded himself sternly, they weren't at all sure yet. Maybe Articuno wasn't the Destroyer at all.

"Hey, wait," May suddenly said. "Isn't that a Floatzel?"

Mark looked where she was pointing and saw the orange head of the otterlike Pokémon looking at them from a short distance away. As it realized it had been noticed, it dived momentarily under the surface before emerging again, now swimming rapidly in their direction.

"I think it's going to attack," Mark said; May was a step ahead of him and had already gotten out a Pokéball.

"Butterfree, go! Hit it with a Bug Buzz!"

The butterfly Pokémon emerged in mid-air and immediately began to flap her wings powerfully, producing a high-pitched sound aimed towards the Floatzel. It shuddered, stopping momentarily, but then sprang out of the water, baring its fangs, and chomped down on Butterfree's foot. The Bug Pokémon let out a cry of alarm as she was pulled into the water.

"Butterfree, Giga Drain!" May called, clinging to Lapras's neck as she leaned towards the water to watch her Pokémon. Under the surface, Mark could see the Floatzel twitch as orbs of energy tore themselves away from its body and were absorbed into the Butterfree's. This caused it to momentarily release its hostage, and Butterfree floated to the surface, where she managed after some desperate fluttering to get herself airborne again. She flew up high as the Floatzel rocketed upwards and jumped out of the water again with a splash; it snapped its jaws in her direction, but couldn't reach and fell back into the water.

"Sleep Powder!" May ordered, and Mark was momentarily surprised.

"Wait, you're going to try to catch it?" he asked as the butterfly fluttered her wings and sparkly, green dust filled the air below her.

"Well, I need a new Water-type, don't I?" May looked at the Floatzel, swimming in circles under the surface while watching them, and frowned. "Butterfree, get it out of the water with Psychic so it will inhale some of the stuff."

The butterfly nodded and began to glow with a purple aura as the same happened to the Floatzel. Realizing what was happening, it began to struggle madly, but slowly Butterfree's psychic powers raised it helplessly out of the water to hover in mid-air. The otter was still flailing around when the butterfly flapped her wings once more and it was forced to breathe in a noseful of green powder. It was only seconds after that before the struggling became sluggish and half-hearted and the Pokémon's eyes closed as it fell limp.

"Okay, great." May already had an Ultra Ball ready, which she threw lazily at the sleeping Pokémon. "Catch the ball, Butterfree."

The ball sucked the Floatzel in and began to fall, but Butterfree quickly wrapped it in a purple glow and kept it hovering in the air. The ball shook fiercely for a few seconds, but then stilled with a ping.

May reached out and grabbed the ball from the air as Butterfree released her psychic hold on it. "Good job," she said, recalling the Bug Pokémon before taking out her Pokédex and pointing it at the new ball.

"Floatzel – sea weasel Pokémon," said the electronic voice of the device. "This Pokémon has evolved an external gas bladder resembling an inner tube, giving it fine control over its buoyancy. It swims using its two tails as a propeller."

Mark saw Lapras giving the ball a bitter look and could imagine that watching May so casually capture what was to be her own replacement wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the world, but he wasn't the type to challenge her over it.

"Oh, hey, she's level 47," May said nonchalantly. "Nice."

"It's a she?" Mark asked, a bit surprised; the creature's aggressiveness had made him deduce it was male, which on second thought had been rather stupid, particularly considering who was sitting in front of him.

"Yup," May replied while presumably switching another Pokémon to the PC in order to keep the Floatzel. "Didn't you see she had only one spot on her back?"

She threw the Pokéball back out, releasing the Floatzel into the water beside them in a burst of white light; she floated at the surface, still sleeping. May took an Awakening spray out of her bag along with some sort of a Potion and sprayed both on the creature's body.

The Floatzel snapped awake and began to struggle again, but upon finding she was back in the water and no longer being held helplessly in mid-air, she stopped and looked around. The Pokémon found May's face and grinned widely, revealing the rows of sharp teeth in her mouth.

"Hi," May said. "I just caught you, so I'm your new trainer. We're going to the League, so I'm only interested if you can take some intense training and are any good as a fighter. If you're just lonely or something or are going to complain, you can go now."

Mark could only imagine what Alan's face would look like if he were there, but the Floatzel just laughed a cackling laugh.

"What I attacked you for, isn't it? You defeated me, so you can make me better. That's how it goes, yes?"

May nodded, her expression still warily sceptical. "Well, that's nice, but I still don't know if _you're_ good enough. Why don't you stay out of your ball and show me what you can do on the way if we find any wild Pokémon?"

The Floatzel laughed again with a glint of glee in her eyes. "Of course! Showing off. I can do that. Yes."

The otter quickly deflated her floating tube and dived down under the surface before taking a spiralling leap back out of the water, seemingly for the sheer fun of it, and then disappearing underwater again. May watched with passive interest while scanning their immediate surroundings for any signs of wild Pokémon.

Mark looked at Lapras again; she was now staring straight forward and if he wasn't much mistaken she was swimming faster than before. The Floatzel was still swimming in wide circles around them, occasionally taking a leap that made Lapras eye her with resentment. May either didn't notice or pretended not to.

Floatzel suddenly stuck her head back out of the water and looked back at them. "A Tentacruel! A Tentacruel!" she said excitedly, waving her arm in the direction of where she'd seen it while looking expectantly at May.

The girl nodded. "Use Quick Attack and then Crunch."

Mark could see the Tentacruel now; the jellyfish Pokémon was lurking in the water several yards away, only its dome-shaped head and the dark eyes beneath it showing above the surface. The Floatzel zoomed forward at a high speed, took a leap out of the water and smashed her body into the Tentacruel's. It let out a disgruntled sound of surprise as it was hit, followed by a high-pitched screeching sound that made the otter Pokémon wince as she disappeared under the surface again. The Tentacruel then screamed in pain, swung two of its tentacles out of the water with Floatzel still hanging on to them by her teeth, and smashed the otter into a nearby rock.

"Trap it with Whirlpool," May called as the Tentacruel motioned to leave. Floatzel shook her head, crawling into an upright position on the rock, and snarled as the water around the jellyfish Pokémon began to swirl downwards, sucking it in so that it had to struggle to stay in the same place. It let out another disgruntled sound and then whipped one tentacle out of the water, flexing the end of it into an arrowhead shape before stabbing it into the Floatzel's body. The otter cried out in pain as a purple liquid squirted out of the edges of the wound; she bit into the tentacle in retaliation and the Tentacruel withdrew it with another grunt.

"Floatzel, another Crunch," May ordered, and her new Pokémon wasted no time in taking a calculated leap in the Tentacruel's direction, landing on its soft head and sinking her fangs into one of the red, eye-like bulges that decorated it.

The Tentacruel let out a crashing roar and flailed around in pain; it was evident that this was dramatically more effective than biting its tentacles, and the Floatzel grinned like a maniac upon realizing this. While the jellyfish Pokémon shook itself violently to try to throw her off, she let out her claws and tightened her bite. The Tentacruel raised a few tentacles out of the water, wrapped them around the otter and started to squeeze. At the same time, the whirlpool underneath them was beginning to lose its force.

"Agility!" May shouted. Floatzel quickly deflated her floating tube and slipped out of the Tentacruel's grasp in the split second that followed before it had managed to tighten its grip. She darted up into the air at a high speed and then shot back down into the water while the Tentacruel motioned to swim away.

"Pursuit!"

Floatzel shot back towards the jellyfish and tackled it, dark purple wisps of energy releasing from the point of impact. The Tentacruel let out a garbled sound and then sank into the water; Mark wasn't sure if it had fainted or had just had enough and was getting away. Floatzel looked back at them with a grin.

"Not bad," May said. "Well, you need a few levels to catch up with my team anyway, so why don't you just stay there and handle the wild Pokémon we find?"

"Yes. Fight. I'll do it!" And the Floatzel returned to swimming in circles around them while Lapras gave her a dark look.

* * *

It really was a long day.

But now, at last, as the sun was setting, they were nearing their destination. This side of Champion Island was relatively flat above the cliffs at the base of the island, but the mountain loomed ominously ahead to remind them of the undoubtedly difficult journey through Champion Cave that awaited them. The translucent shape of a dome-shaped force field that protected the island from unauthorized access shimmered above it all in the evening sun.

"There's a little slab of rock there near the waterfall," May said, pointing to the left side of the roaring wall of water and foam that crashed down from the cliff in front of them. "Lapras can let us off there."

Mark squinted at the gently sloping stone, reaching just far enough out of the water nearest to the cliff for the waves not to wash over it and just far enough away from the waterfall to avoid most of the spray, and nodded. It was getting cold, probably both thanks to Polaryu's influence and the nightfall, and Mark looked forward to getting to the warmth of the small Pokémon Center he knew was located at the base of the mountain, near the entrance to the cave.

Floatzel was already darting towards the slab of rock, leaving a spray of water in her wake. Lapras gave the Pokémon yet another glare of resentment, but sped up the rhythm of her flipper movements now that they were nearly there. She still hadn't said a word on the entire journey, but with each wild Pokémon that Floatzel had enthusiastically beaten to a pulp on the way, her expression had darkened, and Mark was beginning to worry she'd have some sort of an outburst. As she aligned her side with the rock and the kids stepped off her back, however, she just looked at May in silence, throwing Floatzel an occasional glance as the otter Pokémon climbed up behind her trainer.

"So," May said at last and opened her mouth to continue, but then apparently changed her mind and closed it again.

"Goodbye," Lapras said quietly.

"I'm… not sure whether to hope we see each other again."

Lapras looked briefly at Floatzel and said, "I hope we won't."

The otter Pokémon tilted her head. "What? What is happening? Tell me."

"I'm releasing Lapras," May replied, her tone and expression remarkably emotionless as ever.

"Ah. She was not good enough, yes?" Floatzel suggested cheerfully.

"I asked to be released," Lapras responded fiercely, with heat that Mark would not have expected from her. "We are not all fighting-obsessed drones like you."

Floatzel just grinned in a way that could have been oblivious or condescending. That Pokémon was already creeping Mark out a bit.

"Goodbye," Lapras said again, this time spitefully, and turned away to swim north.

"Goodbye, Lapras," Mark said, feeling he should at least say something. "Have a… nice life."

Lapras looked at him over her shoulder but didn't respond.

"Lapras," May suddenly called, and the Pokémon turned around to look at her.

"I…" She glanced at the otter Pokémon standing by her side. "Goodbye."

The sea turtle jerked her head back forward and swam on, eventually disappearing behind the island.

"So do we continue now?" Floatzel asked expectantly. "We go up the waterfall, yes?"

"Mark, where's the Waterfall HM?" May had snapped back into her ordinary self and Mark had the fleeting odd feeling they had all just made some sort of a silent agreement to never speak of Lapras again. He took off his backpack and found the CD case with the Hidden Machine move.

May looked at the otter Pokémon by her side. "Do you mind if we teach it to both Floatzel and Gyarados? Floatzel are a lot better with physical moves, and…"

"Well, it's reusable, isn't it?" He shrugged and handed her the HM while taking out Gyarados's ball. He sent out the sea monster in silence while May opened the case and held the CD to Floatzel's head.

Gyarados emerged in the water and looked around, eying the waterfall and sizing it up. "So this is Champion Island," he just said, and the soft blue glow that was enveloping Floatzel's head disappeared completely as she jerked her head in his direction.

"It speaks human!" she shrieked, looking up at May. "Why does it speak human? Why are those stones on his neck?"

"He's just that special. Be still; I'm trying to teach you a move here."

Mark had to stifle a laugh as May pressed the CD down on Floatzel's forehead again to complete the learning process that had been interrupted. The otter glanced suspiciously at Gyarados for a second but then gave him an indifferent shrug and closed her eyes to concentrate.

"She was quick to find a replacement," Gyarados said.

"Yeah."

"We're going up the waterfall, I assume?"

"Yeah."

May handed Mark the HM and Gyarados lowered his head to the rock they were standing on so that Mark could hold the CD to his forehead as well. The shining blue hue of the CD itself spread out around Gyarados's head for a moment and then sank in. The sea monster blinked and shook his head.

"Get on."

Mark climbed onto Gyarados's back and couldn't help imagining the monster suddenly diving and dragging him into the depths to drown. He shivered and realized with pain wasn't sure he would ever be able to get himself to properly trust Gyarados again.

But they needed him, and the last thing he wanted was to start thinking about Suicune again, so he just fixed his gaze and mind on the top of the waterfall and the hundreds of liters of water crashing off the edge every second and said, "Okay, up we go."

On second thought, he really should have closed his eyes. As soon as he gave the command, Gyarados lurched forward, and he only barely managed to hold on to the fin sticking out of the Pokémon's back in front of him as he suddenly shot straight upwards. It only got worse when Mark felt their connection to the surface of the planet disappear altogether, and for a very sickening moment they were hovering in the air just above the waterfall; then Gyarados plunged down into the river again and let Mark slide off his back at the bank.

Mark had never liked rollercoasters. He spent a few moments just lying on his back in the grass, breathing and listening to the roar of the waterfall while assuring himself the ground was solid again. He heard Floatzel shriek in joy as she also shot up the waterfall with May on her back and looked up to see them climb onto the bank near him.

"Ugh," May said, looking down at her soaked clothes, and Mark felt some grim satisfaction in the shaken tone of her voice that indicated she hadn't found the ride up there any more pleasant than he had. He sat up and recalled Gyarados, who had wrapped himself around a rock in the middle of the river to avoid having to swim against the current, and looked around as he shook some water out of his sleeves.

Just a few meters ahead of them was where the force field dome touched the ground; there was a small rotating gate on it of the kind that made it impossible for more than one person to pass through at the same time. Behind the whitish-translucent wall, he glimpsed a few Squirtle playing in the river, and a simple trodden path led leftward to the mountain, past a smallish house half built into the rock that proclaimed itself to be a Pokémon Center, and up towards a large, dark crack that was clearly the entrance to the cave. The other side of the path led along the mountainside on the right and disappeared from view behind the rock.

The mountain itself was humongous enough that Mark preferred not to think about it.

"Well, this will be fun," May said with mock cheerfulness in her voice, squeezing some water out of her hair. "Let's see how that gate works."

Mark walked to the gate and pushed the rotating door; it didn't budge. On the right side was a metallic panel with eight shallow, disc-shaped holes in it, and it took Mark a second to realize that this was where he had to verify his badges. He took them out of his pocket and placed them in the holes in the right order, although he wasn't sure if it mattered. The machine sprang to life, a small black screen below the holes flashing with green letters saying 'PLEASE REMOVE YOUR BADGES'.

He took them out one by one and put them back into his pocket, and as he removed the last one, the resistance preventing the door from rotating abruptly disappeared, causing him to almost fall through the gate before it locked in place once again with him safely on the other side.

The Squirtle had noticed him and watched him curiously from the other side of the river. He momentarily considered trying to catch one, but then realized that capturing a low-level Pokémon now would require him to either sacrifice a lot of time training it to be able to participate in the League or basically never use it at all, and he needed enough training as it was without adding a low-level new member into the mix – besides, he reminded himself, Gyarados would do just fine as a Water-type no matter how little he trusted him anymore.

He waited for May to get through the gate and they headed silently towards the Pokémon Center. He eyed the silhouette of a big turtle-like Pokémon watching the sunset from the sea to the north, but said nothing and wasn't sure if May noticed it at all.


	45. Polaryu

**Chapter 44: Polaryu**

It was early morning when Mark and May stood in front of the cave, looking in. The entrance was a humongous diagonal crack that widened on the way down, splitting the impenetrable wall of rock in two and inviting travelers inside for their final challenge on the way to the League. Irregular crystal growths that dotted the walls glowed dimly with a ghostly blue color, illuminating the cave just enough to see around. The cave didn't look icy at all.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" May said matter-of-factly as her Ninetales peered in. "Let's go find Polaryu."

Mark felt a cold gust of wind blow sharply out of the mouth of the cave and shivered. He'd never liked being cold. But the last of Chaletwo's dragons was in there somewhere, and if nothing else, that at least felt like it would be a milestone on their quest – the first indication that they really were getting somewhere with this, even if logic told him there were still uncomfortably many legendaries left. He nodded numbly and May led the way into the darkness.

Their breath crystallized into a fine mist in front of their mouths as they followed the tunnel. Mark looked around at the rough cave walls and the luminescent crystals here and there. He was just thinking that it was a fairly straightforward cave so far when they turned a corner and entered a spacious room with several other tunnels exiting from it in various directions.

"Chaletwo, you know where you put him," Mark said in exasperation. "Where do we go?"

_"Second tunnel on the right seems to be just about the right direction."_

Mark blinked, not really having expected Chaletwo to have a plain answer. "Right."

They headed towards that tunnel, feeling the temperature lowering a bit with each step. There were icicles in the ceiling now and Mark was starting to notice a fine layer of frost on the rocks, which in this context had to be considered a good thing. He shivered, pulling his jacket on tighter.

"I don't like this place," Spirit commented in a murmur. "Something feels… wrong."

"You're just cold," her trainer replied.

The Ninetales let out a 'hmph' sound, a flame flickering briefly in front of her nostrils, but didn't deny it.

"Hey, what was that?" Mark pointed to a rock a few meters away from them that he could make out in the murky lighting of the cave. "I think I saw something moving over there."

"Huh." May peered at the spot. "Spirit, give us better light."

The Ninetales inhaled and then blasted a full-powered Flamethrower at the rock, immediately prompting a shriek of agony. A small, yellow, cone-shaped Pokémon scuttled out from behind it and then turned towards them, staring at the Ninetales with a permanently paranoid-looking expression etched on its dark face for a split second before drawing the tent-like structure that covered its body a bit further in front of its face. It stood perfectly still, as if it thought that made it invisible.

"A Snorunt," May muttered, her hand fiddling with her Pokéball necklace. "I'm not sure I'll need it."

Mark looked at the thing; it was starting to shiver uncontrollably where it stood, with the sound of chattering teeth making its way out from underneath the tent in a muffled form. It did not look like it would go very well with May's team, and she seemed to conclude this at the same time as he did.

"Want a go at it?" she asked. Spirit looked with annoyance at the Snorunt and then back up at May as if waiting for permission to fry it with another Flamethrower.

Mark shrugged and figured he hadn't really caught any Pokémon in a while. "Eh, go, Letal."

The moment he'd thrown the ball, he regretted it, because seeing her emerge brought all the problems with Letal back into his mind and he wasn't even sure she would be ready to fight for him now, but the moment she had materialized, she charged at the Snorunt with a snarl, the blade on her head almost immediately beginning to glow. The Snorunt peeked out of its disguise and let out a terrified shriek as she slashed across its vulnerable body.

"No!" Mark could make out of the Pokémon's screams. "No trainer – no – don't want…"

"Wait a minute, Letal," Mark said unsurely, and she grudgingly obeyed, stepping away from the Snorunt. She had thrown it on its back and it flailed helplessly around, unable to get back to its feet.

"No trainer! Don't want!" it screamed as he took a step closer.

"Then why are you in this section of the cave?" Mark asked stupidly.

"Trainers normally come later!" it said frantically, its teeth still chattering. "Much later! Just looking for food! No trainer!"

"Oh." Mark felt incredibly awkward now. "Eh, I guess I should help you up, then?" He could see May in the corner of his eye; she was looking rather amused.

He picked the Snorunt gently up and put it down on its feet, and the moment they touched the ground, the Pokémon struggled wildly out of his arms, scuttled down a tunnel to their right and disappeared into the shadows.

Mark sighed and recalled Letal. "That was kind of… anticlimatic."

May shrugged. "Well, it's not like your team desperately needs an Ice Pokémon in particular."

"That's not what I was thinking about, but I guess not."

"Chaletwo, which way is Polaryu?"

_"The left tunnel."_

Mark couldn't help noticing as they headed into it that this tunnel had a significantly larger number of crystals than the one the Snorunt had taken: was it another bit of Polaryu's influence?

_"Probably,"_ Chaletwo answered the thought. _"These crystals grow in here naturally, but they form more easily under lower temperatures, so it's definitely at least an indirect influence."_

Mark nodded, reaching towards a large piece of crystal on the wall on the right and touching it. It had a very smooth, faceted surface and seemed to glow a little brighter when he touched it, but it was cold as ice – no, much colder. He shivered as he removed his hand and watched the light fade slowly back to normal.

"Oh, hey," said May, walking up to where Mark was. "Are those pure Nevermeltice?"

"Huh?" Mark asked, looking up at her as she gave one of the crystals a light touch with her index finger.

"Yeah, they are," she said. "Nevermeltice crystals. They absorb warmth from the environment and produce light. Too much will break them. That's why they only grow in cold places."

"I thought Nevermeltice was supposed to, well, never melt." Mark looked at the crystal again. "And that it was ice."

"Well, people don't use them pure," May said and shrugged. "It needs to be really dry for them to grow this big. Usually all moisture will build up around them into a clump of ice and stop the growth. In the right amount, the crystal keeps the ice cold, and the ice keeps the crystal from being overloaded and broken. People didn't discover the crystal until long after they'd noticed that some ice shards never melted and started using it." She looked thoughtfully at the luminescent crystals. "Hang on, I'm going to get one. This big, it'll be great to power up Floatzel's Ice Fang."

She pulled a pair of thick, blue winter gloves out of the pocket of her coat, put them on and prodded a sizable clump of crystals experimentally. "Spirit, get some heat here. Be careful not to break the whole thing."

The Ninetales, still seeming a little grumpy, walked up to her side. There was a flicker of concentrated flame and the crystal glowed with a bright tealish light; May grabbed it tightly and yanked a clump the size of maybe two maximized Pokéballs from the wall with a cracking sound as the light faded back to normal.

"Great," she said, turning the crystal over in her hands before putting it into her backpack along with the gloves. "Let's move on. Unless you want one."

Mark shook his head; although Gyarados also knew Ice Fang, he wasn't sure how much he'd ever be using it in the League, and he couldn't help hating the idea of breaking any more crystals; it seemed like it was desecrating the place.

He took a lingering look of regret at the ugly, charred remains of the crystal that May had broken a piece of before he followed her on into the tunnel.

* * *

They'd been walking through the tunnel in silence for quite a while now, and the cave was becoming both notably colder and more visibly icy: the floor rapidly became slippery and the walls coated in a sheet of ice through which the Nevermeltice crystals were only barely visible. They had to watch their steps now, and since the darkness was becoming deeper – both because the crystals produced less light in the colder environment and because they were covered with ice – Mark had sent Charizard out in order for his tail flame to light the way somewhat. Now the dragon was walking carefully just in front of them, holding his tail by his side. Mark had hoped it would also help combat the cold, but didn't feel much of a change, possibly because the crystals still absorbed some of the heat.

"So uh," Mark began just to make some sort of a conversation, "when were you planning to fill Floatzel in on what we're doing?"

"Right." May stopped, reaching for her Pokéballs. "I guess we should do that before we confront Polaryu."

They all stopped as she dropped the Ultra Ball and Floatzel emerged out of it. The Pokémon slipped on the ice as she materialized, falling over on all fours and shaking her head before looking up at May with a grin.

"Okay, Floatzel," she said. "We're not just trainers. We're on this mission to save the world."

The otter looked remarkably unfazed by that declaration; she seemed for a second like she was waiting for May to continue, but then tilted her head, the grin vanishing abruptly. "We are still going to the League, yes?"

"Yes, we're still going to the League."

The grin reappeared as if nothing were more natural. "Then what's the problem?"

"Well, we sort of need to battle a bunch of legendary Pokémon," Mark said.

The grin widened. "Great!"

Mark had a great urge to slap his forehead. "I don't think you're getting it."

"Fighting powerful Pokémon makes us powerful," Floatzel said. "That's good, yes?"

"It can also kill us," Mark replied in frustration, some part of him managing to feel offended at the suggestion that this was no big deal even despite how much he'd have liked to be able to think of it that way himself.

"So can I," Floatzel pointed out. "But then you will not be around to complain, yes?"

Mark decided trying to understand her thinking was not worth it and just sighed in frustration and gave May a vague gesture to deal with it.

"Ah," Floatzel added. "Why does the Gyarados speak human?"

"He's not the only one," Spirit said, giving the otter a glare. Floatzel looked at the Ninetales in intrigued surprise and then back up at May.

"We were chosen by Entei and Suicune," Spirit answered for her, her voice still annoyed. "The gems mark us as their…"

"Chosen what for?" Floatzel piped up.

Spirit took a deep breath. "We don't know. It will all be clear when the time comes."

"So being chosen is no good, yes?" Floatzel grinned innocently, and without warning, Spirit let out a threatening howl, her eyes momentarily flashing red before both Pokémon burst into black flames.

"It's good for that!" the Ninetales said, her voice echoing eerily while Floatzel screamed in pain at the dark flames still licking her fur. "You think Entei and Suicune would toy with us? You think we have no purpose? You think…"

Floatzel dissolved into a beam of red light and was absorbed back into the Pokéball. "What was _that_?" May asked angrily, Spirit looking reluctantly at her. "Floatzel is my Pokémon! We're about to battle a legendary! What's wrong with…"

The ball in her hand burst open again mid-rant, and Floatzel threw herself into Spirit's body with a splash of cold water before darting on along the tunnel on all fours. The Ninetales growled angrily, dark energy swirling around her before she dashed after the otter in hot pursuit.

"Hey!" May sprinted after them, nearly slipping a few times on the icy floor but quickly regaining her speed. Mark quickly recalled Charizard and then followed, figuring Charizard wasn't the best runner around and it was pointless to make him try to keep up.

He'd been trying to catch up with May for a few seconds when he realized that the cave wasn't that dark anymore, even though Charizard was gone and the crystals in the walls were now completely covered with a sheet of ice. They had to be getting close to the exit, he thought even as he scanned the ceiling for holes or cracks for safety – and then he ran straight into May's back, both of them falling painfully onto the ice.

"Ow," Mark groaned, hurting all over as he tried to stand up.

"Mark?" May said in a squeaky voice that sounded suspiciously unlike her. He turned around to look at her and then a bit further to see where she was pointing.

Floatzel and Spirit were lying stiffly on the ground in front of them, hopefully only fainted. Behind them, silhouetted against the cave exit that could be seen at the end of the tunnel, stood a huge, bluish-white dragon with blue crystals – not just any crystals, he realized numbly, but _Nevermeltice_ crystals – embedded into its scales in various places. It watched them with a threatening growl.

"Wasn't he supposed to be asleep?" Mark hissed under his breath.

_"I thought he was!"_ Chaletwo responded, his voice all too panicky. _"I stopped feeling him struggling against his sleep after we got the other two, since now there is nothing driving him, and I guess that's why I didn't notice – just send out some Pokémon already, damn it! What are you waiting for?"_

May had already taken out Spirit and Floatzel's Pokéballs. She jerked her head in Mark's direction, indicating she wanted him to start; he frantically grabbed all of his and tossed them out in front of him. While Charizard, Jolteon, Sandslash, Dragonair, Scyther and Letal materialized, May recalled Spirit and Floatzel, and Polaryu let out a cry of surprise. He recoiled backwards into a rearing stance as he flapped his wings once – and cold wind, ice and snowflakes came rushing in their direction.

"Charizard, do something!" Mark yelled. His first Pokémon flapped his wings as well, creating a wave of hazy, hot air that filled the tunnel to counter the Blizzard, but Polaryu's attack was much more powerful and the Heat Wave only weakened it. Biting cold engulfed Mark's body and he closed his eyes to avoid the tiny needles of ice; then in a matter of seconds, it was over and he could look up again.

"Okay, guys, we have to drive it out of the cave!" May shouted. "We can't gang up on it well in this tunnel!"

"Charizard, Flamethrower!" Mark ordered quickly. "Everybody else, wait a bit!"

Charizard was already inhaling and blasted a bright cone of flames from his mouth, melting part of the ice on the walls as it rushed towards Polaryu. The ice dragon let out another high-pitched cry as the flames engulfed him and his crystals shone with intense white light; there was an audible crack as the ones on its left forelimb shattered. Rather than ceasing to glow after the flames cleared, the crystals brightened still, and Polaryu roared as Charizard's body suddenly stiffened and he collapsed on the ground like a statue, just like Floatzel and Spirit had.

"Return," Mark called worriedly and was thankful when the beam successfully recalled the dragon, indicating he was still all right. His other Pokémon were already rushing to attack the legendary now that they would no longer be in the way; Sandslash, who had turned himself metallic, was just smashing his curled-up body into the side of Polaryu's head, only to be blasted with a countering Ice Beam, while Dragonair used the opportunity to cloak himself in blue dragon flames and smack into the legendary's side. Letal's mask was already glowing as she charged along the tunnel with her claws extended for a better grip, while Jolteon and Scyther sped ahead of her and hit the dragon simultaneously from both sides. Polaryu was clearly in pain, but more importantly, he was skidding and recoiling a little backwards towards the entrance with each hit. Mark ran a bit forward and then looked quickly at May; she had apparently been using her Pokédex to switch Floatzel and Spirit to the PC, but now she was replacing it on her belt.

"I don't think I could get all my Pokémon out here yet without risking friendly fire," she said as she caught up with him. "Besides, it's better to keep them for when one Blizzard won't hurt all of them at once. They'll participate once we're out of this cave."

Polaryu blasted another Blizzard along the tunnel, and the freezing wind sent Mark's Pokémon skidding backwards on the wet ice floor, aside from Dragonair, who had pressed himself up against the ceiling behind a stalactite that protected him from the worst of the attack. While they were recovering, the legendary turned around, got down on all fours and began to make his way out towards the exit. Mark saw that Sandslash was unconscious and recalled him.

_"Quick, he's going to escape!"_ Chaletwo said frantically as Polaryu spread his wings on the outside of the tunnel and took off. _"Stop him!"_

Scyther zoomed out and after the ice dragon, and while Mark, May and the Pokémon were all running towards the tunnel, they could hear Polaryu's cry of pain, followed by Scyther's. Mark reached the entrance just as the mantis crashed into the snow-covered ground of the valley they were now in and recalled him absent-mindedly as he looked up at Polaryu with worry. The dragon's left wing was slightly torn, but he was making up for it by just flapping it that much faster, which allowed him to keep ascending, if a bit unsteadily.

"Jolteon, Thunder Wave it!" May ordered as she came up behind Mark. The Electric Pokémon crouched down, his fur crackling with electricity, and sent a wave of sparks up towards Polaryu; he looked around too late to try to avoid it, and as the paralysis settled into his muscles, he could no longer keep himself aloft. The dragon cried out in frustration as he began to descend and then stopped trying; he fell down into the mountainside, rolled uncomfortably down it through the snow and then landed on all fours at the bottom, facing the Pokémon and letting out an angry roar.

He flapped his wings to produce yet another Blizzard – this time it included a flurry of snow from the ground – and it rushed towards Mark's Pokémon. The kids had moved out of the line of fire and Mark was very grateful for that as he watched Jolteon cower in the middle of the blast; Dragonair had darted up into the air to dodge the attack, and Letal was already running in a half-circle towards Polaryu, her mask glowing again before she smashed it into the dragon's side. Polaryu let out a cry of pain and smashed her into the mountainside with his long tail, but she stood up again.

"Go!" Mark heard May shout beside him; she had taken out five Pokéballs and threw them, her Butterfree, Raichu, Skarmory, Tyranitar and Flygon materializing from the balls. "Send out Gyarados, Mark!"

Above them, Dragonair flared up in blue flames and dived down at Polaryu. The legendary opened his mouth and fired a beam of ice his way, but Dragonair managed to dodge it by a hair and smack into Polaryu's body before quickly ascending again. Mark tore his eyes from him to look quickly around and realized that they were on the bank of a frozen lake; he threw Gyarados's ball out over the lake and watched the sea monster burst out of it, land on the ice and break it easily. He shook his head and then focused on Polaryu, closing his eyes for a Dragon Beam. Mark realized with a spark of hope that it would be an extremely powerful, super effective attack; it might just make the battle.

He looked back up and realized that Dragonair was glowing with a bright white light in mid-air, his form growing rapidly.

"He's evolving!" he shouted in disbelief. "Dragonair is evolving!"

May looked up from ordering her Pokémon, who were already rushing towards the legendary. "What? Dragonair, this is not the best time to grow a double weakness to Ice attacks!" she shouted and then looked back at Polaryu. "Flygon, another Dragon Claw! Steel Wing it, Skarmory! Tyranitar, Stone Edge!"

Mark was still looking in awe at Dragonair – no, Dragonite – as the glow faded away to reveal a huge, bulky, beige-colored dragon instead of the blue, snakelike creature he had been before. He took an experimental swoop in the air on his tiny wings and focused on Polaryu…

Then an Ice Beam came his way, and being bigger meant he was a lot harder to miss.

"No!" Mark shouted desperately as Dragonite crashed unceremoniously into the ground and did not get up again. He recalled him sadly just as a red beam of energy shot from Gyarados's eyes into Polaryu's body. The legendary roared in pain, but recovered quickly, his crystals – save for the one Charizard's Flamethrower had destroyed – glowing brightly before Gyarados stiffened uselessly in place.

Mark recalled him, looking quickly around at the other Pokémon. Jolteon and Raichu were firing Thunderbolts from both sides, but Polaryu barely seemed to feel them; May's Butterfree was trying rather unsuccessfully to confuse the dragon with Psychic attacks and her Flygon was just slashing at his wing with flaring claws. As sharp rocks tore themselves out of the ground under Polaryu's feet, his crystals glowed yet again and Tyranitar collapsed on the spot just as Letal smashed her head into Polaryu's side again, followed by May's Skarmory. Polaryu shook his head and fired a beam of ice at Flygon, which made him collapse pretty much immediately, before conjuring up yet another rather weak-looking Blizzard, which sent Butterfree flying into the rock wall and apparently knocked her unconscious. May recalled her three fainted Pokémon just as Polaryu's Nevermeltice crystals slowly began to glow again.

"Wait!" Mark shouted. "The crystals! Destroy the crystals! Jolteon and Raichu, Thunderbolt them!"

Letal froze just as she was running back towards her target and crashed into the ground, but meanwhile the two Electric Pokémon charged up, and they simultaneously fired bolts of electricity straight at the crystal growths on either side of Polaryu's head.

The legendary had cried out in pain before, but this cry was unnaturally high-pitched, torturous and chilling to the bone. Polaryu threw his head around, wings flailing, as pulse after pulse of draconic energy spread out from his body; Raichu and Skarmory were blasted into the mountainside, Jolteon pushed into the hole that Gyarados had created into the sheet of ice over the lake. Mark recalled him, but May's Raichu had the strength to fire one more Thunderbolt into the crystal on Polaryu's right hind leg before another pulse sent him flying. The dragon was still flailing around in agony and screaming those horrible screams as May quickly recalled her two remaining Pokémon.

_"Just throw the ball already,"_ Chaletwo said quietly in Mark's head, and he grabbed an Ultra Ball out of his pocket, running towards the legendary before he threw it.

The ball hit Polaryu's wing, sucked him in, fell to the ground and wobbled once, twice…

In a flash of white light, the dragon burst out of the ball, fixing his tortured gaze on Mark even as he twitched in pain, opening his mouth as ice crystals formed between his jaws and Mark was rooted to the spot in terror…

"Oh, no, you don't," May hissed and threw another ball – and no ordinary ball, Mark realized in disbelief as he saw it fly through the air: it was the Master Ball she had received at the Pokémon Festival.

It hit the dragon, sucked him in and wobbled pointlessly for a few seconds before it stilled.

"There we go," May muttered as she walked over to the ball and picked it up, just before it dissolved and was sent safely to the PC.

"Fourth legendary caught!" she said cheerfully as if to counter Mark's blank stare. "Shame it took a Master Ball after all the trouble."

It was finally beginning to sink in, and Mark grinned in spite of not feeling the elation of the previous legendary captures: using a Master Ball seemed to cheapen it all, and the dragon's cries of pain were still echoing in his head. "We did it," he said, prodding at Chaletwo in his mind.

_"Yeah,"_ Chaletwo responded monotonously. _"You did."_

"Oh, come on," May said irritably. "Using the Master Ball isn't _that_ big of a deal. We caught him; isn't that what matters? We've still got Mark's for another emergency, remember?"

_"I don't care about the Master Ball,"_ Chaletwo responded distractedly. _"I just… attacking the crystals…"_

_I know, and I'm sorry,_ Mark thought, but aloud he said, "A bit of a dirty trick, but it got the job done."

May rolled her eyes, took off her backpack and searched through its contents before bringing out a Revive. "I wish I'd had the time to find this and use it before the battle," she muttered as she sent out Spirit's frozen body and touched it with the star-shaped item. The Ninetales shuddered and then stood weakly up to be sprayed with a Hyper Potion.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I shouldn't have let the Floatzel get to me."

"No, you shouldn't have," May said shortly. "Now let's get through the second section of this blasted cave and get to the League."

They slowly made their way over towards the cave entrance on the other side of the snowy valley, and Mark realized with an empty feeling of dread that while they had now caught all of Chaletwo's dragons, they now had zero leads on where to find the rest of the legendary Pokémon. This was where the true challenge of their mission began.

He zipped his jacket a bit farther up and shivered as they reentered the cave with its dim Nevermeltice lighting. Seeing the crystals now gave him uncomfortable flashbacks to the battle and to Polaryu's screams of agony, and he looked forward to the moment they were out on the other side and would never have to go through this cave again.

He'd never liked being cold.


	46. The Ouen League HQ

**Chapter 45: The Ouen League HQ**

Mark sighed in relief as they finally exited Champion Cave for what was hopefully to be the last time. He shuddered as the sudden warmth of the afternoon sun enveloped his body, only to have his breath taken away as he looked around.

They were halfway up the mountainside now, on a nice, slanted outcropping of rock positioned neatly in front of the cave exit. A path zigzagged down the mountain on their right. When he had taken a couple of steps forward, however, he saw what was below them – a humongous state-of-the-art Pokémon battle stadium, one that must house tens of thousands of spectators with dozens of cameras capable of following the battlers' every move, surrounded by various buildings that ranged from a couple of smaller stadiums to a small but decorative League office building to several long, multi-storeyed wooden trainer lodges. Here and there around the whole complex stood giant raised screens and speakers, presumably to be used for announcements and to display the details of the next matches; now they were all blank, and there didn't appear to be any people about. Around it all was a tall wire fence with one guarded gate in it, lying at the end of the path that now seemed laughably short.

Mark looked at May with a grin; he could see her eyes shine with excitement as she looked down at the main League arena, and even Spirit seemed impressed. The trainer journey, it was finally sinking in, was soon to be formally over. And as insignificant as it ought to have been, somehow Mark felt ready to put all thoughts of legendary Pokémon aside now, just while the League was going on. He hadn't felt truly excited about being a trainer since one of his first days as one, he realized with bemusement, but now it all seemed to come rushing back. Training might not precisely have been his thing, but now that he was there, the entire journey was beginning to seem worth it, and he resolved to enjoy this and do his best, no matter what it took.

"Come on," he said. "What are we waiting for? Let's get down there."

The path downwards was short and simple; they spotted some Graveler a short distance away and May even said she caught a glimpse of a Larvitar scuttling between some rocks above them, but they left them alone, too eager to get to the League HQ to waste their time fighting random wild Pokémon. They reached the gate within minutes; a bored-looking lavender-haired woman with red glasses sat back in an office chair inside the guard station on the left, moderately immersed in what looked like a cheap paperback romance novel. She looked up as they approached, put the book on the desk and leaned towards the window. "Oh, early trainers," she said. "Hello. Are you registering for the League this year?"

"Yeah," Mark said, curious to know how the process worked. May just nodded.

"Okay. Give me your Pokédexes, please. One at a time."

Mark handed her his Pokédex and she briefly scanned his eye with it. She entered some information into the computer by her left side and was in the middle of handing the device back to him when she narrowed her eyes at the screen.

"Huh," she said. "It says here you're dead."

Mark let out a burst of nervous laughter at the realization that he had completely forgotten about that in the excitement of getting to the League; he hoped that it could be interpreted as a natural reaction to the absurdity of the suggestion. "Well, I'm not," he said lamely. "Obviously. I mean, I'm here, and you scanned my eye and everything."

The woman gave him a suspicious glance, seeming to consider it for a second, but then just shrugged and allowed him to take his Pokédex back. "Must be some mistake in the system," she muttered. "I'll fix it."

Mark blinked as she turned back to the computer. That was it? That was all it took to wipe out all the potential problems with being officially dead? He'd been mentally preparing for being denied participation or worse; they might have looked into why he was dead in their records, which would surely have tugged at the corners of some memories that Molzapart had buried. He glanced at May, who raised her eyebrows at him as she gave her own Pokédex to the woman.

Then again, he reasoned, it was logical of her to assume that a mistake in the system was the most plausible explanation; how likely was a twelve-year-old to deliberately fake his death, much less to do so with criminal intent that might warrant an investigation? The thought calmed him down a little; he'd been half-expecting her to change her mind, but now it didn't seem as likely anymore. He looked back up at the guard station window; the woman had gone into a room at the back. She returned a moment later, holding something Mark couldn't quite see at first.

"Here are your nametags," she said, handing them one each; to Mark's horror, his had that awful school photo on it. "You must wear them around your necks at all times, with the photo facing forward, and will not be allowed to exit the League grounds without them. Yes, put them on now, please."

Mark reluctantly pulled the red ribbon the tag was attached to over his head; he considered turning it backwards to hide the photo, but saw the woman in the guard booth lean forward to watch and figured he probably wouldn't get away with it. May didn't seem any happier with hers, but she put it on with no objection.

"Okay, now please hand me your Pokémon."

May looked suspiciously at her. "Why?"

"They have to be inspected for illegal power-ups or signs of abuse. You will be able to retrieve them at the League offices tomorrow morning by showing your nametags."

May recalled Spirit, and then they both took all their Pokéballs handed them to the woman; Mark felt oddly exposed and vulnerable at the idea of walking off without the familiar weight at his belt, and couldn't shake off a paranoid feeling that he might somehow never get them back. Nurse Joy never seemed like a stranger – perhaps that was why they all strived to look identical, he mused to himself.

"Your rooms are 309 and 310," the woman went on. "This is also on your nametags, and you will need to use the tags to unlock the rooms. You are in the third trainer lodge, the one just left of the main arena. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served on the bottom floor of your lodge. Maps of the area are on the backs of your nametags; you can also ask the staff for directions. Enjoy your stay and good luck." She smiled thinly, pressing a button so that the gate opened with a creak and motioned to pick up her book again.

"Thanks," Mark said to the woman before following May through the gate.

* * *

After leaving their bags in their rooms – they were small and simple, but reasonably neat – they took a nice tour of the area, peering at the tiny maps on their nametags and eventually managing to make sense of them and locate and examine every place of interest. They ran into a couple of trainers – Mark thought he recognized a girl he had briefly talked to at the Cleanwater City Pokémon Center way back at the beginning of his journey – but it was clear that they were still among the earlier arrivals. May suggested that some of the people who were there already were probably out training, which made sense. Just around the time they had explored to their satisfaction, there was an announcement over the PA that dinner was being served in the trainer lodges, and they headed to the long building by the left side of the main stadium.

The bottom floor of the trainer lodge mostly consisted of the dining hall, lined with long tables that were almost eerily empty now, with a buffet on the right side of the room; a boy and a girl had already arrived and were sitting at a table pretty far away. Mark and May ended up seating themselves at the table nearest to the buffet and ate there in relative silence (the food was nothing special, but not bad either) while the television in the nearest corner of the room provided a steady background noise of news anchors' voices.

The word 'Suicune' snapped Mark away from his food. He quickly concluded the source could only be the TV and jerked his head towards the screen while mentally blocking out all other sound.

"…the legendary Pokémon. The cause of its death is currently unknown, but investigators say that it bore battle wounds of varying, but not fatal, severity. Many inhabitants of Cleanwater City have expressed worry about the fauna of the Lake of Purity, supposedly purified daily by Suicune, and Water Pokémon around the world have been very upset at the news…"

Some footage of the dirt that was already collecting in the water of the Lake of Purity and interviews with some people followed; Mark was too numb to register them properly. The programme had caught May's attention as well, and she looked at him, biting her lip.

They'd found Suicune.

Thinking about it, it was always inevitable that the corpse would eventually be found; they hadn't exactly hidden it well, and once it started to decompose, the smell…

Mark forced his mind away from that train of thought, though not in time to save his appetite; of course, he would probably have felt physically ill even without the unpleasant image of rotting Suicune-shaped flesh in his head. He pushed his plate a bit farther away and then, after a moment, laid his cutlery side by side on it.

_"This is bad,"_ Chaletwo muttered inside his mind. _"If the other legendaries hear about this, they'll become suspicious immediately."_

"There's nothing that can trace it back to us, is there?" May asked quietly.

_"No,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Shouldn't be. But if the legendaries hear of it, they'll be more careful, especially with all the other legendaries disappearing in the past years."_

Mark hadn't really thought about that before; of course the other kids were working on capturing the legendaries too, and the other legendaries couldn't be presumed not to have noticed their disappearance. In fact… "Why haven't they put together two and two and figured people are out systematically catching them already?" he asked, keeping his voice down.

_"For all I know, they might have,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Could explain why the others have been having such a difficult time of finding the ones that remain."_

Mark didn't reply, his mind drifting back to Suicune with a horrible pang of guilt. While he shouldn't reasonably have felt any better about it while nobody knew, this still made it worse. A dead legendary Pokémon – he could only imagine his own reaction a year ago if he had heard the news. He'd have been shocked and horrified, wondering who would ever do such a dreadful, blasphemous thing and why. He'd have pictured criminal organizations wanting to upset the balance of the world, madmen like Rick or the Mew Hunter – and, he realized with resentment, he'd most likely have suspected the Gyarados from the lake, acting in revenge. He'd just not have imagined somebody with the full power to prevent it would also be present and not do anything – much less that this person could be someone like him.

His eyes drifted back to his plate, and he knew he couldn't finish eating. "I'm not hungry," he said with a sigh, stood up and walked towards the stairs. He wasn't sure if he wanted May to follow him or try to convince him to come back, but she didn't.

Mark walked up to the second floor, found room 309 and slid the side of his nametag into the electronic lock to open it. The first thing he did when he entered was to pull the nametag off and throw it on the stool beside his bed; then he threw himself onto the mattress with a deep sigh.

Suicune. Why did they have to find Suicune just as he was beginning to manage to push the entire legendary deal momentarily out of his mind so that he could participate in the League like he'd always wanted to?

_"I don't like the idea of you forgetting about it entirely, you know,"_ Chaletwo commented after a short silence.

"Who asked you?" Mark muttered and turned onto his side.

He lay there for a little while, letting his thoughts wander, and was dozing off when there was a knock on his door.

"What?" he called.

"Can we just go for a short walk or something?"

The speaker being May of course didn't surprise him; it was the suggestion itself that made him blink and sit up. "What? With you? Why?"

"Come on."

He stood up, walked hesitantly to the door and opened it.

"Don't forget your nametag," was all May said. He hurried to the stool to retrieve it and reluctantly put it back around his neck. He followed her cluelessly down the stairs and out the door.

"So uh, what are we doing?" he asked finally as May continued onwards in a straight line; all that was ahead of them was empty ground and then the fence.

"Mark," May said, slowing a bit down but not looking at him, "when will you stop angsting about Suicune?"

"Huh?" Mark stopped, taken aback, and she wheeled around to face him.

"You need to get over that already. What use do you think it will be to go to your room and brood about it? Gyarados killed Suicune, yeah; Pokémon kill each other all the time, and if he hadn't done that we'd have been in a load of trouble. I'm not saying it wasn't shocking or anything, but there's no need to have a breakdown every time Suicune is mentioned. They can't trace it back to us, okay? The news doesn't change anything that we can control. Just get over it and focus on what we're doing now, which is training for the League. And for future legendary battles."

Mark took a deep breath. She had a point, of course, about it not being any use to brood about it, and it was not as if he didn't hate thinking about it in general. "Okay."

May nodded. "Great. So next time you get all worked up about Suicune, just try to keep it in, okay?"

Mark closed his eyes, feeling uncomfortably like he was being lectured by his mother. "Okay."

"Great. Let's get back; it's cold out here."

They walked back to the lodge in silence. May was about to open the door when a boy's voice called out, "Hey!"

They turned around. Before Mark had even identified the red-haired boy who was hurrying around them, May's knuckles had tightened around the doorknob and her expression contorted into disgust.

"Here," Taylor said, thrusting his clenched hand towards May. "Take it."

She looked blankly at him, her surprise momentarily repressing her hatred. "What?"

"Take it," Taylor repeated, inclining his hand towards her again. "I don't want it."

"What is it?" May asked, staring at Taylor's fist.

"It's that Quilava of yours," Taylor said, unclenching his fingers slightly from the minimized Pokéball he was holding. He looked briefly down and then back up at May. "Look, I'm sorry I tricked it out of you, all right? You can have it back."

May just stared at him, her expression extremely skeptical, and Taylor sighed, looking briefly away but not moving his hand. "Look," he finally said, "I've got six Pokémon. That Quilava is weak. My brother won't send me another decent Pokémon because he says I've got six already. If I give it to you and tell him it escaped or something, I can get a full team, right? So just take it – please."

May just stood there in befuddlement for a second; then she snatched the ball from his hand. Taylor turned around without words and walked nonchalantly towards one of the trainer lodges on the other side of the main stadium.

"That… that lazy, cheating, spoiled brat," May said as she stared after him, but her voice had none of the ferocity that usually characterized it when she talked about Taylor. "I can't believe it."

"Well, he gave you her back." Mark shrugged. "That's a good thing, right?"

Taylor disappeared through the door of his own lodge and May spent a second with her eyes still fixated on the same spot. "Yeah," she said absent-mindedly as she turned away and opened the door to their lodge.

They ended up just saying goodnight and going straight to their rooms so that they could wake up early.


	47. Day One

**The Ouen League ****-** Chapter 46: Day One  


_Dear Participant MARK GREENLET,_

_Your GYARADOS has been measured at highly abnormal power levels for its species and experience._

_As the standard examination of your Pokémon did not reveal any direct evidence of the use of illegal devices, substances or methods, you will not be disqualified from participation; however, to ensure the fairness of the League, you will regrettably have to be barred from using this Pokémon in League battles._

_Best wishes,  
The Elite Four_

"You got one too, huh?" May asked as she laid a bowl of cornflakes down on the table opposite Mark, her other hand waving a sloppily reclosed envelope. He put the letter down on the table beside his bacon and scrambled eggs while she sat down. He'd read the thing at least five times over since he had found it lying on the floor below the door to his room in a decorative envelope in the morning, and he still couldn't really get his brain to make proper sense of it.

"Why just disqualify Gyarados?" he muttered. "I mean, if I'd trained him with illegal drugs, shouldn't I be disqualified altogether?"

May shrugged. "They wouldn't be able to prove it was you, per se. You could have gotten him off another trainer who did it, or somebody could have laced his food with something to get you disqualified, or something like that. If you don't admit to it and the Pokémon doesn't admit to it, they can't show that you deserve the blame."

"And if nobody did anything illegal? How is it fair to disqualify him?"

"Well, presumably they wouldn't call it 'highly abnormal' and start sending out letters if it could be achieved through legal methods."

"We didn't do anything illegal."

"What, do you think we should go and try to explain to them that they were touched by the legendary beasts and granted special powers? They wouldn't exactly have that registered as a legal way of strengthening a Pokémon."

Mark shrugged. In a way, he was glad he'd gotten that letter; now he had the perfect excuse to refrain from using Gyarados in the League while he got over the Suicune incident. He was really only arguing on principle.

"I wonder if they tried to remove Spirit's necklace to see if it was some sort of an illegal power-up," May mused to herself. "I'd pay to see her reaction to that."

"They also sent me a notice about Charizard," Mark said. "How he was formally registered to another trainer and how while he had confirmed he wasn't stolen, unofficial trades were frowned upon by the League and the trading machines available in every Pokémon Center should always be used to prevent misunderstandings, yada yada."

"Huh," May responded in bemusement. "Then what did Quilava tell them when they asked her, if Taylor still had her?"

Mark shrugged and looked up, catching a glimpse of the TV screen on the wall above the buffet, behind May. The morning news was on; he wouldn't have been interested except for the fact that the all-too-familiar eerie pupilless eyes of Mewtwo² were staring at him from the picture on the anchorwoman's right. May was beginning to say something, but he silenced her with a wave of his hand and pointed at the television.

"…meanwhile, public outcry continues as Ouen League officials persist in ignoring fierce protests to the unprecedented decision to permit the entrance of illegal superpowered clone Pokémon forcibly controlled by modified Pokéballs into the League. Many groups have expressed their confusion, pointing out the generally rigorous efforts of the League to ensure that participating Pokémon have not been subjected to questionable training methods or power-ups, and several individuals and organizations have accused the League of taking bribes, while a petition against the decision has already gathered over three hundred thousand signatures from all over the world. Allen Brown of the Pokémon Rights Advocacy Group, who started the petition, had this to say."

Mark stared at the screen as they cut to an interview with a man who looked every bit as baffled as he was.

"This is ridiculous," the man said. "Ridiculous. There are at least three things about this that are plainly illegal, and it spits on virtually every policy the League has. I cannot believe what they are doing. If this is allowed to pass, we must seriously think about whether our government has become corrupt."

The picture switched to a slideshow of photos of Rick's legendary clones that made Mark feel even sicker than he already did while the anchorwoman droned on: "Cleanwater City Gym Leader Richard Lancaster has long attracted controversy for his use of low-levelled clones of legendary Pokémon in his Gym, controlled through the power of a Pokéball of his own invention which is said to repress the free will of the contained Pokémon. He was also granted a special license to keep one low-levelled genetically modified clone in his Gym. His younger brother, Taylor Lancaster, was reportedly named in numerous reports to the League during the course of his journey in the past few months for carrying abnormal Pokémon, all of which were ignored. Only during his registration to the League a few days ago did it fully surface that all but one of his Pokémon were genetically modified clones, created without the knowledge and approval of the League, and that one of them was 'Mewtwo²', the devastatingly powerful Mewtwo clone that Rick had previously been permitted to keep only at a low level. Despite this, the League has not objected to his participation, and this morning a formal statement was issued, proclaiming their decision to be 'final' but that Taylor would be restricted to four Pokémon in the League rather than the standard six. This compromise has done little to calm the loud voices from every corner of Ouen calling for Taylor to be disqualified and stripped of his trainer license and Richard to be charged as a criminal."

That was the end of the story and the anchorwoman moved on to some other subject as if nothing were more natural while Mark was still staring at the screen in disbelief.

"That bribing, thieving, disgusting cheater," May whispered, her voice shaking with anger. "How could he possibly get away with this?"

Mark felt no need to reply; she'd taken the words right out of his mouth. How could they allow Taylor to enter the League using clones, even as they sent out letters disqualifying Spirit and Gyarados for being too powerful? That was too blatant a double standard for even the stupidest of politicians not to notice. In fact, the entire process was so ridiculously obvious in its wrongness that Mark couldn't really believe it: Taylor had been walking around all this time, cheerfully using his clones; the Clone Balls were recognized to function in very morally questionable ways; there was a particular clause in the exception that permitted Rick to keep Mewtwo², rendering it void if it was ever trained past level ten. How could the brothers have been so ridiculously careless while relying only on Rick's influence to avoid being stopped in their tracks and charged with all sorts of crimes?

A memory snuck into his mind: their previous encounter with Taylor in Scorpio City and Officer Jenny's distant, staring eyes as she suddenly ushered them out and closed the door without a further word. It blended in with all the details of the news report, and all of a sudden everything clicked.

"Hypnosis," he said quietly. "They haven't been bribing the League – they've been using Mewtwo² or something to force them to do their bidding. It explains everything – all the leeway Rick has gotten, Officer Jenny in Scorpio City, Taylor being allowed into the League, the ignored reports… everything."

May looked at him for a long moment, not looking entirely surprised. "It has that kind of power?" she asked, but of course it did. Mewtwo² had slammed Gyarados into a wall with a careless wave of its hand while it was still low-leveled; of course it would make short work of hypnotizing a few government officials if it ever came into contact with them, now that it was no doubt far more powerful.

"We have to tell someone," Mark said, still in shock, glancing around; nobody else was there for the moment after a girl had left the room a few minutes earlier. "Somebody has to tell someone."

May shook her head. "It won't do any good," she said. "I mean, Taylor still has Mewtwo², and clearly the Destroyer hasn't drained it too much yet. Is there really anything we could do to him now that he couldn't prevent or undo?" She paused and glared fiercely out the window. "Damn it! I hope I get to battle him and show that talentless little git that you need more than a mind-controlling legendary clone and a power-hungry psycho brother to be any good!"

Mark nodded and hoped it too; it felt right for May to be the one to knock Taylor out of the League, more than somebody Taylor had never directly wronged, and he would have to be knocked out if there was any semblance of justice in the world. For as long as he was a participant, he was vulnerable: while he'd slanted the rules in his favour, it did appear he had some genuine sense of wanting to participate in a real competition, what with letting them restrict him to four Pokémon, and that meant he could truly be beaten. There was no guarantee that he would ever let that happen once the League was over.

Then again, there was no knowing what he might do to get his way if he did lose. Mark shuddered.

"Huh," May said, mostly to herself. "Come to think of it, the four-Pokémon restriction can't have been already agreed upon if he was desperate to get a sixth clone last night. I wonder if Rick got the League to put the restriction in place when Taylor came whining to him about getting a new clone afterwards." She smirked at the thought before turning to Mark and standing up. "Well, let's go get our Pokémon back, then. We've got training to do."

* * *

At the League office building, they retrieved their Pokémon and were given booklets with a detailed rundown of the rules of the League, which May immediately began to read as they headed towards the gate.

"Interesting," she said. "We'll have to leave our Pokémon for inspection the night before a match, too."

Mark glanced at her as the gatekeeper woman waved them through. "Makes sense, I guess."

"And – oh, here's the section about the preliminaries," she said as she turned the page. "I was wondering how those worked."

Mark moved to read over her shoulder, but she started reading it aloud anyway. "'The preliminary matches are conducted over a period of seven days, starting on the first of August. Multiple matches may be conducted simultaneously on the League's three arenas. The preliminary match-ups are published on July twenty-sixth, but the themes of each arena not until the day before each battle. In preliminary battles, trainers use three Pokémon each' – I'm guessing that means Taylor gets to use two – 'with switching allowed and the four-move restriction in place. Every trainer has two preliminary battles, after which they are graded on their overall performance, taking into account how many Pokémon fainted on each side, the health of the remaining Pokémon on each side, and overall battle performance as evaluated by the judges and the presiding member of the Elite Four. The top sixteen trainers then proceed to the knockout phase, which begins on the fifteenth of August.'" She turned the page. "Sounds fairly straightforward. Oh, hey, it also says you can see every participant's registered Pokémon in the computers at the library. Nice."

Mark looked at her. "Why is that?"

"I suppose otherwise you'd be at an unfair advantage if you happened to have been able to watch your competitor's previous battles or know them otherwise. Makes sense to just make what you have public and let you keep the ones you bring to the battle secret."

Mark nodded and realized that they were now walking in the direction of the mountain. "Wait, where are we going?"

"I was thinking we'd find some nice place to train by the mountainside somewhere." May shrugged and looked at him.

"Well, are we going to train together or separately?" Mark asked unsurely. "I mean…"

"I think it might as well be together for now, before we start specializing for the individual battles. It's a lot easier to focus one's efforts that way."

Mark felt no need to protest; he liked the idea of having May around to give him tips for as long as possible. They found a spot by the mountain, spacious and flat ground hidden from view from the League camp but not too far off, and looked around without saying anything.

The memory of the previous day suddenly bubbled to the top of Mark's mind. "So did you talk to Quilava?" he asked, looking abruptly at her. Come to think of it, it was rather strange that she had not mentioned it yet.

She looked distractedly at him. "Oh, her," she said in a voice that attempted unsuccessfully to be casual. "She… She doesn't want to evolve."

Mark looked at her, dumbfounded. "What? Really?"

"Yeah," May said, looking at the rock wall straight in front of her. "She said she's had enough of it, and that she wouldn't mind getting to battle a bit, but she's spent too long as a Quilava to want to…"

She trailed off, not needing to finish. There was something all too ironic in all of this, that May had spent so long obsessing over the thought of reclaiming Quilava only to have her first given back voluntarily and then turn out to not want to evolve, which surely had to make May very doubtful about wanting to use her.

"So… what are you going to do?" he asked cautiously.

"Do?" May paused for a long moment, fiddling with the minimized Pokéballs on her necklace, before her expression hardened to some sort of repressed distaste. "I'm not allowed to use Spirit, so I don't have a Fire-type. The starters given out by Professor Elm are bred, so they're genetically stronger than anything I might find in the wild here. Who says she won't change her mind?"

Mark gave her a sceptical look.

"And if she doesn't," May went on without looking at him, her voice turning almost angry, "I can just release her, catch a few wild Cyndaquil, or some better Fire Pokémon – I can't stand bloody Cyndaquil anyway – and keep the best one. And even if she's got better genes, the evolved form is still stronger."

She clenched her fist around her Pokéballs; Mark wished he could have said something to calm her down – he would never be able to convince her that using an unevolved Pokémon was not the end of the world, after all – but couldn't really think of anything to that effect that wouldn't at the same time encourage her in her rather dubious intentions. He also wanted to tell her that capturing many Pokémon just to pick out the strongest one and release the others was wrong, but he knew that would only get her more riled up, so he said nothing at all.

She took a few deep breaths and then looked sharply towards him. "Shouldn't you talk to Dragonite or something?"

It was an obvious hint that she didn't want to talk about it; in any case, Mark had almost forgotten that Dragonair had evolved, and now that he'd been reminded of it, he really did want to see how he was doing in his new form. "Oh, yeah, right," he muttered and grabbed the dragon's ball. "Go!"

He threw the ball, and it opened to release a formless shape of light that quickly began to shape itself into Dragonite. His first instinctual reaction was that Dragonite was a bit anticlimactically small; he hadn't gotten a good idea of his size in the Polaryu battle, and now that he could evaluate it properly, he was definitely smaller than Mark's mental idea of a Dragonite. But when the light had faded away completely, he felt pride well up in his chest: he actually did have a Dragonite, one of the strongest non-legendary Pokémon in the world.

Dragonite turned around to look at him.

"So…" Mark began, not sure how to start a conversation. "How's being a Dragonite?"

"Feels very weird," the dragon muttered in a voice very oddly unlike his own as he raised a chubby arm and moved his claws slowly. "It will take some time to get used to having limbs."

Mark tried to imagine what sort of an experience it would be to grow limbs all of a sudden if you'd never had them and could only conclude it had to be very alien. He said nothing; it was beginning to creep upon him that, particularly in the light of the discussion he had just had with May, maybe it had been inappropriately selfish of him to be so excited about Dragonair's evolution – had he ever properly made it clear that it was his choice?

"And I feel kind of… ungraceful," Dragonite went on without really waiting for an answer. "Like a balloon. I'd gotten used to controlling my flight the way I was before." He concentrated and flapped his tiny wings rapidly, but didn't budge from the ground; he growled in irritation and leapt off the ground with his hind legs, which made him bound surprisingly high into the air, where he got caught in the wind and was thrown sideways. He regained his balance awkwardly, still floating slowly towards the ground in a very balloonlike manner, and began to flap his wings again, which this time managed to stop his descent and propel him forward.

"Oh, I get it," he said brightly, flying forward and gathering speed as he went; he accelerated more quickly than Mark would have expected, though he was still not especially fast. "I could get used to this."

"So you'll be okay, I mean, having evolved?" Mark asked cautiously.

Dragonite looked at him, his expression puzzled. "What? Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

"So," May said suddenly, reaching for a Pokéball before Mark could think up an answer, "how about a battle to see what you can do now?"

Dragonite looked towards her and made a careful landing. "I suppose," he said and looked at Mark; he hurried over to his Pokémon's side to stand opposite May as she threw the ball she had plucked from her necklace.

"Go, Tyranitar!"

Mark was a bit doubtful as he watched May's dinosaur materializing; sand was already beginning to twirl up on the ground around it in obedient response to Tyranitar's presence. The two Pokémon were about the same size, but Tyranitar obviously had more experience with his evolved form and had had more training since his evolution, not to mention that Dragonite would be weak to Rock attacks; he couldn't help thinking it wasn't a fair match-up at all. But he couldn't deny that Dragonite and Tyranitar were Pokémon viewed as counterparts in a way that made it seem very fitting.

"Okay, Dragonite," Mark began, "use Dragon Rush."

"Tyranitar, Stone Edge!" May yelled.

Dragonite was faster and took off in a leap that, again, seemed far too high and slow for the weight he ought to be; intense blue flames cloaked his body, far brighter than when he'd been a Dragonair, while Tyranitar roared and raised chunks of rock out of the ground below him. Dragonite dodged them in his dive downwards, closed his eyes as he entered the cloud of sand around Tyranitar and then smashed his body into the dinosaur, causing Tyranitar to stumble a little backwards as Dragonite retreated back out of the sandstorm.

"Aqua Tail!" Mark shouted quickly.

"Rock Slide!"

Tyranitar was still recovering as Dragonite's tail lengthened and dissolved into water in mid-air; he dove back towards his opponent, drawing his tail back, and then whipped it powerfully into May's Pokémon, who growled in pain, thrust a paw into the air and with it caused an array of rocks to tear themselves out of the mountain and smack into Dragonite's back, sending him flying right over May's head. He crashed into the ground a few feet away.

"Another Stone Edge," May ordered; Mark saw the danger immediately, his Pokémon being vulnerable on the ground. "Dragonite, quick!" he shouted. "Get back up!"

But Dragonite was only beginning to push himself to his feet when the ground underneath him cracked apart, sharp rocks exploding upwards and cutting him as they sent him flying. Here it benefited him how light he was in practice, however: instead of his weight helping the edges of the rocks pierce into his hide, the attack served more to throw him upwards where he flapped his wings frantically and managed to shake the stones off himself. Instantly his tail turned into water again and he dived down to smack it into Tyranitar.

"Crunch!" May yelled as the dinosaur was hit and roared in pain; he countered by seizing one of Dragonite's feet in his jaws as he began to ascend again. The dragon cried in pain, tugging on the leg, but Tyranitar held him – for a second, Mark was comically reminded of a child trying to hold on to a particularly large helium balloon, except for the sandstorm beating on Dragonite's hide.

"Tyranitar, use Stone Edge while he's stuck!"

The ground underneath Dragonite began to crack, and he tried in seeming desperation to fly up without success; then suddenly he pulled straight sideways, just as the sharp rocks began to tear themselves out of the ground below, and thus pulled Tyranitar straight into the way of his own attack. He roared in pain as the sharp stones drilled into his thick hide, and Dragonite wriggled himself loose from his open jaws and was quick to get out of the way.

Tyranitar fell onto the ground on his side, beaten and battered and clearly unable to stand up. He looked at May with a desperate gaze as the last wisps of the sandstorm died down; she looked from Dragonite to Mark, her lips thin.

Mark let out a short burst of repressed, disbelieving laughter. He wasn't the type to gloat, but he couldn't help himself: he'd just beaten _May_, with _her_ at a type advantage. It seemed ridiculous.

"Look," May said, "that does not count. It was a practice battle so that Dragonite could get used to fighting in his new – shut _up_, Mark." She gave him a glare, but he couldn't have stopped giggling if he had tried.

"I know you think this is just sore loser talk," May said heatedly, her face already reddening, "but I was not making any effort. I thought Tyranitar could beat Dragonite with brute force and no strategy, and you got lucky."

"Yeah, suuure," Mark replied with a grin that prompted another murderous glare. But even though winning this was priceless, and a definite moment of awesomeness on Dragonite's part, he knew better than to seriously think himself the better trainer for it, and it would have been rather hypocritical to tease her too much about it. With the general mood she was in, he didn't really want to. She just gave him a resentful look and reached for a Pokéball.

After hastily recalling Tyranitar, May quickly got to discussing moves with Dragonite to change the subject, and they spent the rest of the day guiding their Pokémon in picking up various useful moves similarly to how Letal had learned Iron Head. By the time they returned to the trainer lodges for dinner, Mark already felt like they had made enormous progress, and despite everything, he was more grateful than ever that he was there with May.


	48. The First Preliminary

**The Ouen League – Chapter 47: The First Preliminary**

The days passed surprisingly rapidly from there: May seemed to think of something new to suggest in the way of practicing or training every day, and for all of Mark's worries that those weeks before the formal beginning of the League would be very tiring for both him and the Pokémon, there was never a dull moment in all of it. His Pokémon seemed only more energized than usual with all the exercise they were getting, and Mark himself had never enjoyed being a trainer as much as now, when he was focused on training, felt like he was making actual progress, and was talking with his Pokémon every day.

So when one morning May reminded him that this was the day that the preliminary match-ups would be published, the sudden panic he experienced was an all-too-uncomfortable slap back to reality.

"Wait, we're starting to train separately _now_?"

"Wasn't that the idea?" May replied with a shrug between chewing the last few spoonfuls of her cornflakes. "The big screens outside will show us the names of the people we have to battle in the preliminaries, and then we can go to the library to see what they have. After that, we'll probably have to focus on different things anyway, and we should be getting to specializing and refining our strategies."

They finished their breakfast and walked outside, where all the trainers who had arrived since they'd gotten there had already gathered in a crowd, craning their necks up towards the enormous screen. It flipped all too slowly through a slideshow, with the photos and names of the competing trainers shown below the date and arena of their match for at least twenty seconds before the next pair was shown. After what seemed like ages, Mark's name finally came up: first matched with a red-headed, serious-looking boy named Aaron White on arena two on the third of August, and then with Megan Hayfield, the dark brown-haired girl he had recognized from the Cleanwater City Pokémon Center at the beginning of his journey, in the main stadium on the fifth. Aaron White also looked irritatingly familiar, although Mark couldn't for the life of him put his finger on where he had seen him before. May apparently had a battle on the third as well, and then one on the seventh, the last day of the preliminaries.

They squeezed themselves out of the crowd and headed towards the library, where May showed Mark how to log in to the League database and look up participants (she had gone there on one of the first days to find out exactly what Taylor had), and Mark found himself oddly amused by the grayed-out picture of Gyarados on his own profile, which May had loaded as a sample. After that he checked Aaron White and Megan Hayfield (the former had exactly six, seemingly carefully-chosen Pokémon, while the latter had several pages of what looked like nearly every Pokémon she had ever come across but had still, bizarrely, all been trained to respectable levels), wrote down some notes on them into his sketchbook, and then told May, who was still staring intently at the Pokémon owned by her first opponent, that he would go out to train.

It felt oddly lonely to be going out of the League HQ without her company again, after having gotten so used to her almost-constant presence. In a way it was nice; part of him had missed solitude, and it was somehow relieving to finally find himself nearing the mountain with the chatter of the now quite crowded League area gradually fading into background noise while, closer by, the grunts and growls of battling Pokémon blended in with their trainers' voices. The relative silence was kind of soothing. At the same time, it felt decidedly like something was just _missing_ when she wasn't babbling on about battle strategies by his side; it had become such an integral part of being there that the lack of it made him stop there and look dully around, half-expecting her to come after him.

He plucked Charizard's Pokéball from his belt and released the dragon. Over their stay at the League, his tail flame had grown and brightened and his body turned leaner and more muscular, which had made him look considerably more like the champion Charizard he had seen on TV; the dragon had also confessed that he generally felt far better now, physically, and it had shown in their training. As he yawned and stretched his wings out, Mark could see the powerful muscles flexing under the thick orange hide and felt a twinge of pride on his behalf.

"Morning," the dragon said. "Where's May?"

"We're going to be specializing now," Mark said. "They published the preliminary match-ups this morning. We have about a week to figure out how to beat the first guy." He lifted his sketchpad and flipped back to the page where he had written down the information on Aaron White. "Uh, he has a Ditto, a Smeargle, a Ninjask, a Lanturn, a Flygon and a Glalie."

Charizard tilted his head. "That will be… interesting."

Two girls had approached, chatting very loudly together, and now began to battle very close by with the accompanying shouts and screams; Mark looked at Charizard.

"Let's get out of here," the Pokémon agreed, and Mark climbed onto his back before he took off. After the Volcaryu battle, Mark hadn't really expected to ever ride on Charizard's back again; however, as more people had arrived at the League and the general area had become more crowded, they had eventually resorted to flying over to find good spots to train, and although he had been hesitant to do it at first, remembering the general discomfort of his previous flying experience, he had quickly gotten used to it and figured out how to keep himself reasonably balanced during flight.

Generally it was May who picked out locations, and Mark wasn't quite sure what he was looking for now that he was left alone for the task; they flew wide circles over the mountainous landscape – Mark could only truly appreciate the sheer size of the base of Champ Mountain when he saw it from above – and eventually he recognized a place where he had gone with May at one point, a low, rocky area near a pond, surrounded by higher peaks and roughly the size of a standard Pokémon battle arena. He pointed it out to Charizard and they descended quickly to land by the pond, where Mark got off and sent out his other Pokémon.

The entire group, not just Charizard, was in better shape now. Mark could have sworn Sandslash had physically grown, and the training had seen his speed and reflexes improve considerably. Jolteon had also become even speedier, and he had become quite masterful at dodging attacks, a skill that had emerged in a training session where May was trying to gauge the best talents of each Pokémon. Scyther could hit harder and had learned a few new attacks from TMs that May had recommended and they had bought from the League Pokémart – Aerial Ace, U-turn and, at her insistence that it was a good idea, Brick Break; he had also become quite adept at using Night Slash and Double Hit. Dragonite had become more practised at flying and otherwise managing his movements with every passing day; he had also learned to use attacks such as Fire Punch and Thunderpunch, Outrage and Hyper Beam. Charizard himself could now use Dragon Claw, Shadow Claw and Air Slash as well as having learned Flare Blitz; May had recommended a Swords Dance TM. Letal…

Well, Letal had not evolved.

That, of course, had only made her more quiet and moody; Mark had tried to talk to her a few times, but she generally didn't answer with anything more than spat monosyllables, although he hoped at least some of his reassurances had gotten across to her. She had become very attached to May since their arrival at the League and naturally been very enthusiastic about training the whole while: she'd become faster, stronger, bigger; her stamina had improved; she'd learned Aerial Ace and Giga Impact from TMs; she'd even picked up Night Slash from Scyther on her own just by watching him perform the move. But none of this had made her evolve, and while Mark and May had never actually mentioned it beyond exchanging occasional glances, he could tell that Letal was slowly realizing that her evolution, if it were ever to happen, was long overdue. And eventually even her determination for battle had faded, replaced with a perpetual resentful bitterness and dull, mindless obedience when they trained that was somehow considerably worse to bear than her frequently brutal original strategies had been.

So now, as Letal lay on the ground a short distance away from his other Pokémon and looked at him with an empty expression, he felt a twinge of guilt and wished he only knew how to help her. He decided he would talk to her that evening, not that he was sure anything would come out of it; for now, all his Pokémon were waiting for him to say something.

"Um," he said. "The preliminary match-ups were published this morning. On the third of August, I'm battling this guy who has a Ditto, a Smeargle, a Ninjask, a Lanturn, a Flygon and a Glalie. May isn't going to be with us anymore, so you guys are going to have to help me figure out which three of you would do best against him and how to prepare." After a moment of thought, he sat down on a rock to face the Pokémon, who looked at one another.

"What types are they again?" Charizard asked.

Mark looked down at his notes. "Well, Ditto transforms, so it'd be whatever is facing it," he said. "Smeargle's Normal, but it can learn any attack so it doesn't count for much. Ninjask is Bug and Flying. Lanturn is Water and Electric. Flygon is… Ground and Dragon. But it flies. And Glalie's Ice."

He looked questioningly up at his Pokémon; finally, Sandslash said, "Well, I think Scyther would do well. He can use Aerial Ace against Ninjask or a Ditto transformed into Scyther, he can use Brick Break against Smeargle and Glalie, and he can fly, so Ground attacks from Flygon wouldn't affect him."

Mark nodded slowly and looked at Scyther.

"Well, the Ditto could get me just as well with Aerial Ace, and Ninjask could know it," the mantis said. "Glalie and Lanturn would both be trouble, and as for Smeargle, it probably packs a Rock attack or two. I wouldn't be so sure."

"I could beat Ninjask, Flygon and Glalie," Charizard said. "As long as you have someone for Lanturn…"

"You need someone without a crippling weakness, for Smeargle," Letal interrupted all of a sudden; Mark jerked his head towards her, but she was still lying disinterestedly where she'd been before, her eyes closed so that if she weren't talking, he'd almost have thought she was asleep. "Use Sandslash."

Sandslash looked at her in surprise. "But I… Ninjask and Flygon can both fly, and Lanturn is a Water-type. It can't be a good…"

"If he is using a Smeargle," Letal interrupted again, opening one eye in annoyance, "he will have taught it powerful moves of all types, just to exploit people like you whose Pokémon will all fall in one or two hits from the right attack. Use Sandslash. He can maybe take a couple of hits while he brings it down."

Mark looked at Sandslash and then back at Letal, who had closed her eyes again. "Well," he said finally, "I guess it would be nice, just to be safe."

"Then you definitely need something that can handle Ninjask, Flygon and Glalie," Sandslash said, still a bit unsurely. "So you should use Charizard."

"And then Lanturn is the biggest problem," Mark replied, nodding. "Jolteon can maybe…"

"It'll have Volt Absorb," Letal put in. "Don't."

Mark stared at her again. "Where did you learn all this stuff?"

"I have paid attention to what May has said," Letal replied, her eyes still closed. "It might do you some good."

Mark ignored the snide comment. "Uh, so… Dragonite?"

"It's common for Water Pokémon to know Ice attacks," Letal pointed out.

"Okay, so…" He looked briefly over his Pokémon, counting them off in his head. "That leaves… you."

"Apparently."

"But why are you thinking of this as if he is going to use all six?" Dragonite protested. "Shouldn't we consider how he will put together his team of three?"

"If we can beat all six, why bother reducing the problem?" Letal said coolly, looking at him. "You will not be any good when three of his Pokémon probably know Ice attacks; he would have to be insane to not use any of them against a trainer with a Dragonite. Jolteon will only be of use against Ninjask, and he has two Earthquake-users and two Electric immunities. Everything Scyther can do, Charizard can do better. He will most likely use Smeargle, and therefore you will need Sandslash. And it is no use considering Ditto, since which fighter wins will then depend on the strategies used. It is plain who should be in this battle. And send me out first."

She closed her eyes again, laying her head back on her paws as if to sleep, and said nothing more.

Mark looked uselessly around at his Pokémon. "Eh… let's try to think of some specific strategies to use?"

* * *

"Letal has turned into you," Mark told May at dinner. She just raised an eyebrow, unable to answer verbally while her mouth was stuffed with spaghetti.

"She went all strategic on me, deciding for us who I should use in the first preliminary battle and stuff," he explained. "Even though she doesn't act that enthusiastic about actually battling."

May shrugged, swallowing. "She could just be distracting herself from the evolution thing."

Mark nodded. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking," he said. "Or trying to find another way to prove herself or something."

"Blaziken learned Flare Blitz today," May said. "Almost on level with the rest now. Mutark is still a bit behind. She can be damned hard to train."

Mark was silent. May had released her Quilava a few days after their arrival and caught an energetic, light-hearted Torchic instead; she'd gone on tirades about how much she needed a Fighting-type and how important it was to have finally gotten one. Quilava had more or less not been mentioned since, while she seemed to grab every opportunity to use her new Blaziken, talk about his progress and what a great addition to her team he was, almost as if to convince Mark what a good idea it had been to release her, but he hated hearing about it and didn't want to encourage it by answering. He sighed.

"I guess it's a good thing, if it helps Letal deal with it," he said to change the subject back, and May just shrugged, ending that discussion.

* * *

After dinner, he went to his room, sent Letal out and sat down on the bed. She emerged from the ball in a lying position and showed no sign of being awake until Mark cleared his throat and she opened one eye.

"So um… how are you feeling?"

"Feeling?" she asked disdainfully. "Like usual, I suppose."

At least she seemed a little more talkative than she had been the last time he had tried to talk to her, which could only be considered encouraging. "Well, thanks for the strategic pointers today."

"I couldn't let you make idiotic decisions in front of me without commenting."

"It would be nice to get some peace from people telling me what to do, now that May is off my back," Mark said, getting a little annoyed. "Especially if you're going to sit here calling me an idiot. It might make me less inclined to want to help you evolve, you know."

Letal chuckled. "It's pointless to threaten me. We both know I'm not going to evolve like this."

She was right, and this was really not the time to be angry at her. Mark sighed. "I'm sorry. Is it still bothering you, the evolution thing?"

Letal looked at him in a way he took as a yes.

"Is there anything I could do to help that?"

Silence.

"I'll take that as a no." He sighed again and rubbed his eyes. "So, well…"

He hesitated. He knew that they would have to come to that subject sooner or later, but he didn't know how she would react and it was painful to bring back to the front of his mind.

"About your father," he said finally, stopped and looked at her, waiting for a reaction of some sort. There was none.

"What about him?" Letal said after a few seconds of silence.

"You… still want to…"

"What makes you think I would have changed my mind?"

Mark opened his mouth and closed it again, not sure what to say; an empty feeling of dread was washing over him, and he already regretted having brought it up. "Well, I was just sort of hoping…"

Letal snorted. "It is none of your business. Why are you concerning yourself with it?"

He took a deep breath. "Well, I don't always see eye to eye with my parents either, but I still love them and wouldn't want anything… I mean… and I wouldn't want to kill anyone, even if I hated them," he finished hopelessly.

Letal looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "Good for you."

"But I mean, couldn't you just… talk about it or something?" Mark asked lamely; Letal only chuckled at the suggestion.

He couldn't just try to tell her it was wrong. She obviously didn't see it that way, and he really didn't trust himself to be able to explain a concept like that from the ground up, least of all in a way that would make her at all inclined to change her position. All he could really offer was a weak, "Well, could you please try to… think about it before it comes to that?" And when that was met with only a tired glance before Letal closed her eyes again and laid her head back down, he took it as a signal to end the conversation, for which he was, in a way, grateful.

* * *

The next days passed quickly; he practiced moves with Letal, Sandslash and Charizard while they collectively considered strategies that could be employed against each individual one of Aaron's Pokémon and some more general ones that emerged from the discussion. While Letal tended to make many of the largest contributions, Mark felt that he was slowly getting the hang of it as well, and the other Pokémon quickly started to make more comments, particularly on ideas concerning their own abilities.

On the first of August, May dragged him with her to watch one of the first preliminary matches, on a desert-themed arena: the main stadium had been filled with sand and the battlefield had been heated even past the above-average outside temperature. This put its mark very visibly on the battlers during the match: towards the end, all the Pokémon but a Charizard and a Cacturne, both owned by the same trainer, were very visibly exhausted, thanks to the switching that had prolonged the battle considerably and the smouldering heat that lessened their endurance. The trainer with the Charizard and Cacturne naturally won, and by the time it was over, Mark had gotten all too nervous about his own battle, having realized just how much of an effect the environment could have; they had never really considered the arena themes in their plans.

"Whether you win isn't the most important thing, you know," May said as they were leaving the stadium. "They know that the themed arenas might give one trainer's Pokémon more of an advantage by sheer luck. It's about how well you use the arena anyway. The kid who lost – it's the guy I'm up against in my second preliminary match. I've checked his profile. He has Pokémon that would be better suited to a desert arena, but he just went with what seemed like it had the most immediate offensive advantages against the other guy. You just don't use a Glaceon on an arena like this. And the other kid did some clever stuff – remember that Flamethrower turning the sand into glass?"

Mark, who had not much thought about the possibility of having to reconsider the three Pokémon he would bring (though it did satisfy him, in an odd way, that neither had Letal), did not feel much better to hear this, but regardless, he spent the rest of the day frantically thinking of possible arena themes and how they might affect their outcome with his Pokémon. Letal grudgingly agreed that depending on the arena it might be necessary to reconsider their strategy, though she made sure to mention that on a desert arena the current team they had been planning would still be the best. The eventual conclusion of the day was mostly that there were too many possibilities and that there was no sense in trying to plan for every possibility when they could find out for sure what their theme was the next day and prepare for it then.

Mark went to bed praying it was something convenient.

* * *

"Water?"

Mark's heart sank as he stared at the giant screen; he really hoped he had misread it somehow, but it definitely said that the theme of arena two on the third of August would be water.

"Why must it be water of all things?" he moaned. "I don't even have a Water Pokémon anymore! And two of the ones I was going to use are weak to Water!"

May smirked. "You shouldn't have decided what you wanted to use before learning the theme. You're supposed to figure out what each of your Pokémon could do against what he has, and then you choose which combination would work best on the arena after you learn what the theme will be."

"You could have mentioned that before," Mark muttered, said goodbye and squeezed himself out of the crowd so he could send Charizard out. They went back to their usual training spot by the pond, and Mark sent out the others and explained the situation.

"What is a water arena like, anyway?" Letal asked, irritated, as she paced around; it amused Mark how in the past two days she had completely stopped her habit of lying on the ground and being half-asleep while they discussed strategies. "A bigger pool?"

"Usually the entire arena is filled with water, minus where the trainers stand," Mark replied, remembering seeing water-themed arenas on television. "Then they have platforms that non-Water Pokémon can stand on, but it's a lot about knocking the opponent into the water. I think our whole plan is screwed."

He looked at Sandslash, who took a step backwards. "I'm not coming anywhere near that," he said, shivering as he shook his head. "I couldn't even use Earthquake effectively, anyway."

Letal pawed the ground in agitation, but said nothing. Mark knew that she had really wanted to be in this battle, even if she had tried to act indifferent about it, and though he couldn't say he knew it for sure, he strongly suspected that Letal couldn't swim; the armor both weighted her down and somewhat inhibited her movement. Her silence only confirmed this.

"So," Mark said. "We'll have to rethink this completely. Jolteon, you're definitely in – when they're wet they'll be hurt more by Electric attacks. Charizard, what do you say?"

The dragon looked at Mark with scepticism, but finally he said, "If I'm needed, I'm in."

"I'll participate," Letal said suddenly, looking back at Mark. "I don't care if it's a water arena."

"Can you swim?"

"No," she replied, "but I want to take part anyway."

"Letal," Sandslash said gently, "if they knock you into the water, you need to be able to get out of it again."

Letal gave him a glare, but did not respond; at last she laid herself down on the ground again, closed her eyes and muttered, "Fine. Do what you like."

Mark couldn't say he particularly wanted to please Letal in this; he'd done enough of doing what she told him already. With a sigh, he decided to ignore her and turned back to his other Pokémon. "Okay, let's figure this out properly. On a water arena, wouldn't the guy almost definitely use Lanturn? I mean, especially since two of my Pokémon are weak to electricity and a third is weak to Water attacks. It's also likely to know an Ice attack, which would be good against Dragonite as well. That's… Jolteon and Letal left as possibilities to deal with it, pretty much, and…" He gave Letal a glance; she was either asleep or, more likely, pretending to be. "Well, if she can't swim, she's pretty much out of the picture. So Jolteon, what could you do against it, if it has Volt Absorb?"

"Not much," Jolteon muttered. "Just… Pin Missile, I think."

Mark scratched his forehead, thinking. "Right. Well, we'll have to do something about that. Now… Smeargle?"

"If I'm on the team," Scyther said, "I could go for knocking it out before it ever gets to attack me." He shrugged and looked at Mark.

"Right. Maybe. Or Dragonite. Ditto is just Ditto. Um… how likely is he to use Glalie?"

"I think it's likely," Dragonite answered. "He has to figure you won't use Sandslash, but he might also realize you can't use Letal, and maybe think you wouldn't use Charizard either."

"Well," Scyther put in, "If I were a trainer and I knew my opponent had a Dragonite, I'd assume he would use it. He'll bring Glalie."

Mark nodded. "Right. Well, then it's best to keep Charizard in, to deal with it."

"And he can take Ninjask," Scyther said. "And Flygon."

"He's not likely to use Flygon, is he?" Sandslash asked. "It will have the same problems with Earthquake as I would."

Dragonite shrugged. "It might just use Dragon attacks, or something else."

Mark rubbed his forehead. "So okay, Jolteon and Charizard are in… and Scyther or Dragonite? Right?"

The Pokémon looked at each other and murmured in agreement.

"Okay, then. I guess we need to figure out what Jolteon can do against Lanturn."

* * *

Mark realized all of a sudden that his eyes were open. His dream, just a muddled haze of vague thoughts floating around in his head, had slipped out of his grasp before he could pinpoint what it was about. It took him a second to remember where he was – and, more importantly, what day it was.

He bolted upright and felt blindly around for his watch on the small bedside table. He grabbed it and pressed the light button, only to find that it was four in the morning – he could have told himself that, he thought dully, too tired to be annoyed, just from how dark it was outside. He replaced the watch and sank back into his bed, and after that he woke up so often during the night that by the time his watch finally said it was seven o'clock, he felt more like he had been waiting awake since four than like he had been half-asleep. He sat groggily up, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and got dressed, too tired to think of much but just that this was not the best way to start the day.

It first occurred to him at breakfast that being so sleep-deprived could adversely affect his battling abilities, but he pushed the thought out of his mind. May had not yet arrived at the breakfast table, but then again not many people had; the first battles wouldn't start until ten, and he guessed most people would rather let themselves and their Pokémon have some sleep.

After eating, he returned to his room and passed the time with a bit of drawing; he half-intended to try to sleep a little more, but as it ended up he had too much fun sketching up battles and before he knew it, it was already half past nine.

He headed over to the League offices to retrieve his Pokémon from the standard examination and drug trials, but a woman at the counter informed him that he would only be allowed to get his chosen three Pokémon for the battle now. After he had nervously picked out Jolteon, Scyther and Charizard, she accompanied him to the arena and led him through a locked door, up a staircase and to the trainer box, where she left him with a thin smile and a "Good luck."

The arena was flooded with water up to only a few meters below the level of the floor that he was standing on. The trainer boxes were small and surrounded by a metal railing; he knew there would also be a force field to secure the trainers from the battling Pokémon. Two seemingly solid platforms stuck out of the water fairly near the trainer boxes on either side of the arena, with a third larger one in the very middle; between and behind them, in various patterns snaking around the entire arena, were far more fragile-looking, floating squares of various bright colors that bobbed up and down with the waves. Aaron White had already arrived on the other side and now stood there, leaning against the railing as he eyed Mark across what was to be their battlefield.

Mark thought over his strategies again with a sudden paranoid fear that he might forget them; that at least occupied him until he noticed that the audience stands appeared to have been closed, the big status screens on either side of the arena had lit up with their names and live images from cameras focusing on their faces – his stomach fluttered for a moment as he watched the all-too pale and nervous close-up of himself – and then, finally, a voice on the speakers said, "Trainers, ready Pokéballs."

He grabbed Jolteon's ball, made sure that it was Jolteon's ball, and made sure again for good measure.

"Ready, set…"

His hand gripped the ball tightly as he stared at the large platform ahead of him and blocked out the uncomfortable thought that he might not throw the ball far enough.

"Throw!"

His arm tensed; the air in front of him shimmered vaguely, a sign that the force field had just been turned off. "Go!" he shouted and hurled the ball forward at the same time as a second ball came flying from Aaron's side. They popped open simultaneously and released the Pokémon in bursts of white light, Jolteon forming on the large platform and Lanturn in the water near it. The force field shimmered back into place just as the ball returned to Mark's hand.

For a brief moment, he felt oddly impressed that they had correctly predicted Aaron's first Pokémon, despite that of course they wouldn't have predicted it if it hadn't been the likeliest possibility; he didn't have much time to be impressed, however, and blurted out, "Jolteon, Thunder Wave!"

"Lanturn, Confuse Ray," Aaron called, and Mark could see him smirk on the status screen: that would have been evidence enough, but he still looked down and watched the wave of electricity surround Lanturn and very evidently fail to harm it. It had Volt Absorb, then – of course that had been likeliest, but it was better to make sure.

Lanturn surfaced and focused, the glowing bait on its forehead bobbing up and down as the light inside it brightened; then a concentrated sphere of light tore itself away from the bait and hovered towards Jolteon.

"Jolteon, use Agility to avoid it!" Mark said quickly, remembering having seen somebody use the move in this way on television.

"Hydro Pump!" Aaron ordered. Jolteon was hesitating, staring at the mesmerizing ghost light that was now floating around him in slow circles; Mark called desperately out to him, but he only looked up just as the Lanturn had surfaced again and fired a high-pressure jet of water from its mouth that hit him head-on. Jolteon was thrown backwards into the water behind him and yelped as he tried to swim while the Confuse Ray still labored to distract him; then he finally closed his eyes in concentration and rocketed out of the water, onto the platform and across the floating path to the middle platform. There he stopped, panted and shook the water out of his fur.

"Swift!" Mark shouted, and Jolteon shot a flurry of sharp, glowing star shapes from his spiked body that sought out and bombarded Lanturn even as it attempted to dive out of the way. It had been a last-minute TM, but it did play on Jolteon's strengths, and Mark could see Aaron frown on the screen as his Lanturn tried unsuccessfully to evade the merciless stars.

"Lanturn, Stockpile!"

Mark watched the anglerfish take giant gulps of water; his heart pounded in his chest. With this, Lanturn practically had all of its moves used now: first Confuse Ray, then Hydro Pump and now Stockpile, which would almost inevitably lead to Spit Up or Swallow being the last move. If he just got it to use that final attack, it would not be able to use an Electric or Ice attack, meaning Scyther would be free to deal with it with his harder-hitting moves.

Meanwhile, Jolteon had already used three different attacks, and Mark wanted to save the fourth for Thunderbolt for use later in the battle, so he had little choice now. "Swift!" he ordered again.

Now that Lanturn's sides were bloated out with water, the glowing stars seemed to hurt it less as they smashed into it, and Mark briefly considered switching Jolteon out right away, but figured that then Aaron would change his strategy and use another attack, letting Stockpile just serve its defensive purpose instead.

"Use Hydro Pump, Lanturn!" Aaron called. Lanturn surfaced and blasted a stream of water towards Jolteon, but Jolteon leapt to the side and it only hit the wall of the arena. Mark could see his Pokémon briefly stick his tongue out at Lanturn before he darted across to the platform on Mark's side of the arena; he smiled.

"Another Swift!" he called. Jolteon wheeled around and shot another flurry of stars towards the fish Pokémon as it swam towards him; it cringed in pain.

"Lanturn, Swallow!" ordered Aaron White.

As Lanturn motioned to swallow the water that it had been storing in its mouth, Mark raised the Pokéball that was still lying in his sweaty palm. "Great job, Jolteon!" he shouted. "Come back!"

Jolteon looked up just as the Pokéball's beam absorbed him; the force field in front of Mark disappeared as he replaced the ball on his belt.

"Scyther, go!"

The mantis formed on the platform, hissing and flashing his scythes to intimidate the Lanturn. Some of the scratches on its hide had closed, but it was still hurt; Aaron frowned as he looked at Scyther and hesitated.

"Scyther, Swords Dance!"

"Hydro Pump," Aaron countered quickly.

Scyther spun around in a rhythmical series of movements while sharpening his scythes as the Lanturn surfaced yet again to spray a high-pressure stream of water towards him. Scyther was blasted backwards, which interrupted his concentration, but he had kept it up for long enough, and his wings quickly picked him up again to hover in the air just above the arena.

Aaron paused momentarily; then he took out a Pokéball.

"Lanturn, retu…"

"Pursuit!" Mark yelled as the Pokéball beam zoomed towards Lanturn: May had made very sure that he would not forget how useful two of Scyther's attacks would be in the preliminaries, and it had been one of the reasons he had decided to go with Scyther rather than Dragonite. Scyther zoomed towards Lanturn, his scythe enveloped in dark energy, and struck the fish Pokémon just as it was absorbed by the Pokéball beam: there was only a garbled cry of pain before Lanturn disappeared entirely into the Pokéball.

Mark saw Aaron bite his lip on the screen as he returned the ball to his belt, and he felt crazily happy about having caught him off guard. The other boy picked another ball without much hesitation and threw it into the field; Mark was not surprised to see Glalie emerge.

"Glalie, Ice Beam!" Aaron shouted.

"U-turn!" Mark yelled: the other useful attack for the preliminaries. Scyther darted towards Glalie as ice crystals began to form in front of its static mouth, tackled it in mid-air and then immediately transformed into a vague form of translucent red that was absorbed into Mark's Pokéball before Glalie had the chance to execute its counterattack.

"Charizard, go!" Mark called as he threw out the next Pokéball. His first Pokémon emerged in a burst of white light, roaring as he flapped his wings to keep in mid-air. The Glalie fired the Ice Beam, blasting it into Charizard's face; he was knocked over in the air and his flight wavered, but he pulled himself up again with relative ease.

Aaron was already reaching for Glalie's Pokéball; it dissolved into red light.

"Lanturn, go!"

As the fish Pokémon began to emerge from the ball that Aaron threw, Mark also recalled Charizard and instead hurled Scyther's ball back into the arena. Mark looked down at Lanturn; after the Pursuit, it was visibly battered, and its swimming seemed a lot more strained than it had been before, but it glared at Scyther with determination in its eyes anyway as he formed on the platform.

The image of Aaron on the status screen seemed to sigh before he said, "Lanturn, use Hydro Pump."

"Scyther, Double Hit!"

Scyther zoomed towards the fish Pokémon, readying his scythes, as it began to surface. He hit Lanturn with the blunt edge of his right scythe, but it pushed him back with a blast of high-pressure water before he had managed to strike with his left: perhaps Double Hit hadn't been the best idea in the situation. Scyther spat out some water as he regained his balance in the air.

"Lanturn, Confuse Ray!" ordered Aaron.

Mark looked at Lanturn as the fish Pokémon came to the surface yet again to let loose a wispy light to distract Scyther with. Its movements were becoming forced and sluggish; it would surely go down with just one more strike.

"Scyther, Pursuit!" he shouted, anticipating that Aaron might switch, but the boy just watched silently as Scyther managed to concentrate and zoom down at Lanturn with dark energy circling his scythe. The fish Pokémon tried to dive deeper into the pool, but was too slow to avoid the attack and was struck by the blunt edge of the blade before it had really managed to turn; it moaned, flopped upside-down and floated lazily to the surface.

Cheering exploded from the audience, startling Mark; he had almost forgotten that the spectators were really watching, and he felt oddly self-conscious to realize that they were actually cheering for him, for the first KO in the battle. He snapped his gaze quickly back towards the status screen, where Aaron White was replacing Lanturn's Pokéball on his belt, frowning but not hesitating before he picked the next ball.

"Glalie, go!" he shouted as he threw it. "Use an Ice Beam!"

"Scyther, U-turn!" Mark called as the floating form of the Ice Pokémon emerged, already reaching for Scyther's Pokéball, his heart pounding in his chest. He really was ahead – he was winning.

Scyther darted towards Glalie with a roar and was halfway there when he suddenly stopped. Mark was jolted out of his wild, momentary fantasies of victory and looked sharply down at the arena. Scyther was reaching out with his scythe in an almost childlike manner – towards the bright little ghost light that was still bouncing around his head, whose existence Mark had completely forgotten about. He had no time in this brief moment of panic to recall him: Scyther plunged into the water, having forgotten to flap his wings, and a beam of freezing cold followed him there, turning all the water around him into a huge, solid block of ice within moments.

The iceberg floated up to balance itself on the surface and then bobbed peacefully up and down, the mantis Pokémon's form dimly visible within it. The audience watched in stunned silence. Mark stared at it in horror – the iceberg might be too opaque for him to even be able to recall Scyther like this – and then, just as he was reaching for the Pokéball anyway, he realized that he wouldn't have to.

He grinned triumphantly. Aaron White frowned on the status screen, his eyes flicking towards Mark's screen and then back to the arena. Mark's mind raced. There was no way Glalie could possibly harm Scyther more like this using Ice attacks, so perhaps he could fish for it to waste another attack to take him down.

"Glalie, Gyro Ball," Aaron ordered.

The ice demon concentrated, having plenty of time to do so now, and started to spin around at great speed until its rounded, mask-like form became a spherical blur and seemed to attain a metallic sheen; then it shot towards the iceberg like a bullet, cracking it on impact, though it did not break fully and Glalie rebounded backwards from it.

"Try again," Aaron said patiently, and his Pokémon repeated the endeavour while Mark waited, fondling Scyther's Pokéball nervously with rapidly sweating fingers. The iceberg's surface was now covered in a web of fine cracks, though Scyther's vague form did not seem to stir within it and the mantis wouldn't have been able to hear a command; he was probably already unconscious, but while he was frozen inside the ice where that couldn't be confirmed, Mark could not be forced to recall him for the benefit of his opponent, and tiring Glalie was in his best interests for now.

Glalie spun for yet another Gyro Ball, and this time the iceberg shattered as it smashed into it, sending clumps of ice flying all around. Scyther's body was thrown back into the water, limp as a ragdoll, and started to sink while the audience began to cheer loudly again.

"Return," Mark said quickly and pointed the Pokéball at the mantis to let the beam absorb him. He placed the ball back on his belt and was already reaching for Charizard's when he realized that he had yet to see Aaron's third Pokémon. He paused to think, closing his eyes while his heavy heartbeat drummed in his ears.

Ninjask, Flygon, Ditto or Smeargle.

He had Jolteon and Charizard.

They could both handle Ninjask easily; that wouldn't be a problem. Flygon, on the other hand, would wipe the floor (or water as it were) with Jolteon, and he didn't much like the idea of Jolteon, already tired, trying to face a copy of himself in a match that would inevitably come down to Swift – his main strength was his dodging, which wouldn't help him then. If he sent Charizard out now, Aaron would just switch, and he would end up having to deal with a healthy Glalie with Charizard hurt or possibly fainted. He'd looked Glalie up; he remembered it could learn some Water attack. Did he really want to risk it?

His hand moved to Jolteon's ball.

"Go!" he yelled, throwing it into the arena. The Electric Pokémon landed on the platform, slightly weary but still well up to a fight, and bristled his fur towards Glalie.

"Thunder Wave it and then be careful!"

"Glalie, Ice Beam!"

Jolteon was faster, and a wave of crackling electricity was thrust towards Glalie while it was still charging its attack. The paralyzing sparks settled into its icy body, causing it to shudder briefly before it fired the countering Ice Beam. Jolteon was ready for it and narrowly darted out of the way; the freezing beam instead hit the edge of the platform Jolteon was on, freezing a large patch of water over and around it.

There was a slow creak as the buoyancy of the ice began to tilt that end of the platform upwards. Jolteon looked back at it, startled, and Aaron grabbed the opportunity to issue another order:

"Water Pulse on the platform, Glalie!"

"Jolteon, get it with a Thunderbolt!" Mark blurted out as a hurried counter without being sure what Aaron was thinking.

Being paralyzed, Glalie was of course no match for Jolteon's speed even when it got the order first, and so Jolteon managed to fire a bolt of electricity towards it before it had really begun to react. It winced and recoiled in the air as the Thunderbolt struck it and had to blink a couple of times before it could manage the concentration to spit pulses of water towards the large platform on Mark's side; by that time, Jolteon was already safely situated on one of the small, floating platforms near the side of the arena, and he cocked his head in puzzlement at Glalie's efforts.

"Blizzard!" Aaron ordered sharply.

"Thunderbolt," Mark said after a moment of hesitation, and Jolteon fired another attack to strike Glalie before preparing to dodge.

A freezing cold wind rushed across the arena with a flurry of snow. Jolteon ran back towards the larger platform to avoid the most concentrated part of it that was aimed at him, but Mark's stomach lurched as he realized what Aaron had really been doing: the layer of water on top of the larger platform was now transformed into a deadly sheet of ice that sent Jolteon skidding helplessly across it with a cry of surprise and straight into the rapidly solidifying water on the other side.

"Jolteon, use Agility to get out!" Mark shouted in panic, but it was too late: the merciless Blizzard was already freezing the water all around Jolteon even as he yelped and struggled, and when the wind subsided, he was stuck in a sheet of ice covering the entire arena but for where parts of the platforms stuck out.

What Jolteon had over Scyther now, however, was that he was still conscious, still partly above the surface, and used mainly special attacks.

"One more Thunderbolt!" Mark yelled.

"Finish it with an Ice Beam," Aaron called.

Jolteon's fur crackled as he closed his eyes in concentration for his final effort; meanwhile Glalie charged the move that would undoubtedly finish Jolteon off. It was still paralyzed, with sparks flying across its body every now and then, and the effort made it grunt: it was obviously tired.

Jolteon's Thunderbolt struck it, and it shuddered in pain before delivering a final blast of ice crystals that sent Jolteon slipping into unconsciousness while icicles formed on his fur.

"Great job, Jolteon," Mark said quietly as he recalled his second Pokémon to a burst of cheering from the audience. Just Charizard left, but Glalie would surely go down with one Flamethrower – they were still relatively even, at least.

"Do it, Charizard!" he shouted as he threw the ball. Charizard formed in the air above the nearest platform, seemingly in good shape, though Mark remembered that he had taken an Ice Beam and would be disadvantaged in that way. "Flamethrower!" Mark ordered.

"Glalie, return," Aaron said, letting the beam of a Pokéball absorb the Ice Pokémon as Charizard was beginning to inhale. Mark looked at his opponent on the status screen in puzzlement; there was no way that Glalie could be of further use in the battle, being paralyzed, weakened and up against a Fire-type, and yet Aaron was making his next Pokémon take a Flamethrower?

"Go, Ditto! Transform!"

The ball that Aaron threw released a tiny shape on the frost-covered platform on his end, but it almost immediately began to glow white, grow and change as if evolving.

"Quick, before it's finished!" Mark called, and Charizard seemed to have had the same thought: white-hot flames billowed out of his mouth and caught the Ditto mid-transformation. The Charizardish shape recoiled, but remained standing, and when the flames cleared away, the light faded to reveal a completely identical copy of Charizard that grinned and roared into the sky before lifting off from the ground.

Mark's mind raced as he watched the two dragons begin to fly wide circles around one another. With the two Pokémon facing off being completely identical and Charizard the more hurt and tired of them if anything, they had nothing to rely on but their wits if they were to have any hope of winning this final duel. He wasn't sure how much he trusted himself to be able to – but the memory of Charmeleon's performance in the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament reassured him that Charizard would hopefully know what to do when he didn't.

"Swords Dance!" he blurted out.

"Scary Face!" Aaron countered.

One of the Charizard stopped and his mouth twisted into a wicked grin which then stretched to something far too disturbingly wide to be an ordinary grin while his eyes rolled backwards in his head. The other recoiled a little backwards, hesitantly, but then began to spin himself around in the air in a complex dance, somehow reminiscent of Scyther's version of the move despite how different the two Pokémon were.

"Now hit it with a Dragon Pulse!" the other boy ordered.

Mark felt really certain that Charizard did not know that move, but the Ditto flung his neck forward with an ear-splitting roar, and a faintly bluish shockwave rippled through the air, knocking the real Charizard backwards. Mark realized in frantic panic that the Ditto must have practiced all sorts of TM moves that Charizard didn't know: it wasn't just an even match for whatever it had transformed into, but in fact had a distinct advantage.

"Charizard, Smokescreen!" he shouted as the first thing he could think of, and then immediately regretted having wasted their third move as Charizard released a cloud of thick, black smoke from his mouth that quickly enveloped most of the arena.

"Another Dragon Pulse, Ditto," ordered Aaron, and another draconic shockwave found its way through the smoke, but it was aimed too high, and through the dissipated gap that it left in the shroud, Mark saw Charizard manage to dive below it.

"Charizard, try a Dragon Claw!" Mark yelled.

Blue flames flared up around Charizard's claws as he darted through the smoke, straight towards the Ditto. It quickly turned upwards and shot out of the Smokescreen cover, Charizard following with a growl.

"Ditto, Rock Slide!"

"What?" Mark's heart skipped a beat as panicked thoughts of all the TMs he had never bothered to remember floated around in his head. "No! Charizard, dodge it! Get back into the smoke! Quick!"

The dragon flattened his wings against his body, plummeted downwards and disappeared into the thickest part of the Smokescreen.

_Wait a minute,_ Mark then thought as he saw the Ditto-Charizard hover in place and close his eyes in concentration. _There are no rocks. This is a water arena._

"Charizard, it'll be ice! Just melt it with Flamethrower!" he shouted.

As he made out the dim silhouette of large clumps of ice tearing out of the ice below and then throwing themselves around in the smoke, he also saw the flicker of bright flames where Charizard was engulfing them one after another in quick bursts of fire that made short work of evaporating them in the air. All this began to clear the smoke partway, and Mark caught a glimpse of Charizard swiftly dodging yet another boulder of ice that came towards him from the back. Aaron White bit his lip on the status screen.

That was four moves, Mark suddenly realized – with Transform, Aaron's Ditto had used four moves now and couldn't use any more. Charizard had used four moves too, but at least the Ditto would not surprise him with any more TMs. The thought made his heart beat faster in a spark of hope: Aaron had made his greatest mistake by ordering that failed Rock Slide.

"Ditto, try another Dragon Pulse," the other trainer ordered at last.

"Charizard, thicken the Smokescreen and then use another Swords Dance!"

The Ditto, still flying above the already thickening cloud of smoke, roared to send another shockwave down towards where it thought Charizard was, but there was no sound to indicate that Charizard had been hurt until a few moments later when he burst out of the cloud of smoke directly below the Ditto, roaring as his claws flared with dragon fire.

The Ditto recoiled, but was surprised enough that Charizard managed to chase after it and rake his claws across its belly while it tried to get away. It snarled and whipped its tail towards Charizard, but though it batted him away, it didn't appear to hurt him much. Instead, he readied his flaring claws again and made another charge towards his doppelganger.

"Dragon Pulse it now!" Aaron shouted.

The Ditto opened its mouth wide and produced a shockwave that, at such close range, knocked Charizard considerably backwards. He fumbled for balance in the air, the dragon flames on his claws gone, and meanwhile Aaron grabbed the opportunity to issue another command:

"Rock Slide!"

Charizard looked down and was preparing to counter it with Flamethrower even before Mark could make the order. Chunks of ice, now mostly half-melted, flew upwards and were quickly vaporized by a wide cone of bright flames before coming anywhere close to Charizard, the attack pathetically ineffective – _suspiciously_ ineffective.

"Dragon Claw again!" Mark ordered even as he looked at the opposing trainer on the status screen, trying to read his expression; it was inscrutable, but at the same time he was sure there was _something_ there that he was missing. Charizard slashed at the Ditto yet again, his claws shredding a portion of one of its wings, before he was knocked back by another Dragon Pulse. The Ditto faltered in its flight, not used enough to its wings to know instinctively how to balance it, and started fluttering irregularly to try to keep itself in the air; Charizard smirked and his claws flared up for the final blow…

"Ditto, drag him down!"

The Ditto all of a sudden stopped struggling to get away from Charizard's advance and instead lunged towards him as he was charging. It managed to get on top of his back and dig its claws into him there at first, but Charizard wrestled himself loose even as they were falling and viciously attacked the other dragon from the front with his own claws. Now the Ditto refused to let go, however: it folded its wings back completely, and Charizard's flailing attempt to support both of them did no visible good.

Mark stared at the other trainer in puzzlement for that fraction of a second: Charizard was on top, so surely, it was Ditto who would hit the –

His eyes widened and he fixed his gaze back on the shape of the two Pokémon as they were falling through the smoke – and then there was a splash.

Mark stared through the smoke cover in horror as the two Pokémon's forms wrestled desperately with one another even as they sank towards the bottom on the pool, flurries of bubbles rising from their tail flames.

The Ditto hadn't been trying to win: it was all a reckless suicide tactic.

They both struggled desperately in pain as their tail flames fought to survive, but the Ditto held mercilessly on to Charizard and they sank ever deeper into the water. Aaron's face on the status screen was pale but determined. Mark's mind was too numb to be sure what to do.

Then both Pokémon stopped struggling in the water; Ditto glowed white and transformed back into a blob of slime, but Charizard did not rise to the surface. They were both out.

Mark snapped back to reality, fumbled with Charizard's ball and finally managed to get the Pokéball beam to recall him. _He'll be okay,_ he reassured himself frantically. _His tail flame wasn't out yet, he'll be fine…_

"The winner is Aaron White."

He looked up in confusion – he'd been so sure the Ditto had fainted too – only for his eyes to find the status screen, now displaying the results: pictures of the trainers and the six Pokémon that had been used in the battle, all with a red cross over them… except Glalie.

Weakened and paralyzed and barely conscious Glalie had won Aaron White the battle.

Mark stared up at it and felt his face heat up in a mixture of emotions: worry for Charizard; shame at his loss; the wild, insensitive, deafening cheering of the audience; anger at the other boy for pulling such a cheap victory, for having such a reckless and dangerous strategy; anger at himself for not having foreseen it until it was too late, for not having recalled Charizard earlier when he had lost anyway. He looked across the battlefield, where Aaron White stood raising his fist triumphantly into the air, and felt a powerful, bizarre longing to punch him in the face – a feeling so disturbing that it made him stop, look down, rest his hands on the railing, close his eyes and try his best to shut his ears to the audience. There was something wrong. He rubbed his forehead; it was cold and sweaty, veins throbbing in his temples. His head was beginning to ache.

He recognized this feeling, vaguely, from somewhere.

The other time had to do with Charizard too – Scyther – anger and worry –

He saw flashes of strange memories – him screaming obscenities at two people who had just emerged from the walls, silently dumping Scyther and Charizard's Pokéballs on the counter in the Pokémon Center, sitting down, May waving her hand in front of his face with a puzzled expression.

His blackout after the final battle of the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament.

His mind began to clear as his emotions faded to more familiar levels. Everything seemed a little bit jumbled up still, but he felt like himself again, at least aside from the strange little throbbing somewhere deep inside his head.

There was something prodding at his mind.

He looked sharply up in alarm. There was only one thing he could think of that was here and prone to prodding at people's minds. His gaze swept across the audience stands, but he already knew it couldn't really be there: Pokémon couldn't be brought to the audience stands. Unless he'd hypnotized the guards and everybody sitting near him too, but _why_?

People were leaving; Aaron White had already disappeared. And somehow, after a second, Mark could just tell that the mind-prod didn't come from the audience. He turned around; it seemed stronger when he faced the door.

He opened it carefully and walked down the stairs, slowly, focusing on keeping his mind clear. He exited the trainer box and wanted to take Charizard to the Pokémon Center immediately, but hesitated when he realized that the intensity of the throbbing in his brain had changed because he had moved – he could perhaps follow it to the source. Did Taylor know that they were on to him – was he targeting them? And if so, could they actually escape it?

He had to at least _try_ to do something.

He closed his eyes and turned his head slowly, feeling where the throb was strongest, and then took hesitant steps in that direction. It continued to intensify as he walked nervously along the edge of the stadium, to the corner –

He turned around it and stopped to stare.

Taylor was standing there with his back turned, just by the far wall of the arena, with the tall, thin shape of Mewtwo² standing beside him. Short, rhythmical movements of the Pokémon's bony hands were making several boulders swing obediently back and forth in mid-air over suspiciously similarly-shaped large holes in the ground.

"Try up and down now," Taylor said. "And then throw them over the fence."

The Pokémon obeyed unnaturally quickly, wiggling its fingers up and down with almost humorous lack of effort which nonetheless sent the boulders bouncing by several meters. Then it thrust its hand forward, Mark felt a stinging throb in his mind, and the boulders flew over the fence and landed in the distance with an earth-shaking thud.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Mark stammered and Taylor turned around. Mewtwo² remained completely motionless as if it hadn't noticed him, even the hanging, pendulum-like tip of its long, blue tail remaining completely still. It was very disquieting to look at.

"Training," Taylor said as if nothing were more natural. "What are you doing?"

Mark wasn't sure how to respond. "I – you – why has it been messing with my head?" he asked, pointing a finger at Mewtwo²'s back. He could still feel the throb in his brain.

Taylor looked blankly at him before realization seemed to dawn upon him. "Oh, that," he said. "It happens."

"Happens," Mark repeated, his voice oddly squeaky. "What happens?"

"You know, people's feelings getting stronger. He does that when we train close to people."

Mark looked blankly at him, feeling almost too utterly confused to speak. "Well, train somewhere else, then!" he managed to say. "I was having a battle over there!"

"Oh," Taylor said. "Okay."

He recalled Mewtwo² into a Pokéball and the throbbing abruptly stopped. Mark stared at him as he walked nonchalantly off in the other direction, towards where the gate was.

Mark took a deep breath and exhaled again as his mind slowly unjumbled itself. For a moment he was sure that Taylor was lying, that he was just trying not to be found out, but the more his mind cleared, the more convinced he became that Taylor just really was that careless and naïve and had not actually meant any harm. He shivered at the thought of Mewtwo²'s presence alone causing something like this and hoped that Taylor would train far away from now on.

He turned around and broke into a run towards the Pokémon Center.


	49. The Second Preliminary

**The Ouen League - Chapter 48: The Second Preliminary**

"He will be fine," Nurse Joy insisted. "Submersion in water does not fully extinguish the tail flame of a strong Charizard until around half a minute after unconsciousness is induced, and modern health care can easily bring it to full recovery as long as it's brought back alive."

"But there has to be some sort of rule against that kind of…" Mark protested.

"It is not considered a potentially lethal tactic by League rules unless there is a clear, demonstrable risk of death or permanent tissue damage within fifteen seconds of unconsciousness," the nurse said patiently. "As I said, he will be fine. Odds are your opponent knew it was safe, or he would not have risked it. Please calm down and step away. There are other trainers with injured Pokémon here."

Mark sighed and sat down on one of the couches in the Pokémon Center, partly glad that Charizard would be all right and partly frustrated that the League would just brush it off. He looked towards the entrance, still busy with trainers walking in and out; as if just to rub salt in the wounds, Aaron White appeared in the door and stepped in. He looked around, saw Mark and, to his great dismay, walked towards him.

"Hey," the boy said. "Your Charizard okay?"

Mark nodded numbly and wanted to add, "No thanks to you," but resisted the temptation.

"He's your starter, isn't he?" Aaron asked and sat down on the couch opposite Mark's. He nodded again, vaguely surprised. "Ditto is my first, too," Aaron went on. "I know I'd be worried sick if somebody did that to him. I'm sorry."

Mark looked at him, not sure what the other boy expected him to say.

"We only use that tactic when we're desperate. It's nasty business, but tell your Charizard we only did it because he was kicking Ditto's butt. No hard feelings."

Aaron stood up and extended his hand, and Mark stared at it for a moment before shaking it.

"I'll see you around," Aaron said and turned to leave the Pokémon Center. Mark looked after him, feeling only dull frustration that he could no longer feel quite justified in hating him.

Behind Aaron, May made her way into the building, looked around and then hurried towards Mark.

"There you are," she said. "Lunch? My battle's not until three."

They went back to their lodge to eat while May lectured him about every mistake he had made in the battle.

"You really shouldn't have kept Jolteon out after the Blizzard," she was saying when they sat down with their plates. "You could have pulled the same thing on him that he pulled on you, with keeping an injured Pokémon back in case of a close call. If you'd done that, you'd probably have won. Even with Ditto's kamikaze tactic, Jolteon might have managed to beat Glalie when you sent him out again, when he would not be stuck in ice. And you really should have used the arena more. He was doing the standard tricks of water arenas – knocking you into the water, freezing parts of the arena and so on – while you were doing nothing. I mean, you didn't make any particularly _bad_decisions for the arena you were on, save maybe using Charizard, but you're not getting any extra points for use of the arena, that's for sure."

Mark poked the meatballs on his plate with his fork. "Was it that bad?"

May looked at him. "Well, he screwed up too," she said with a shrug. "Before the suicide attack, Ditto's strategy made no sense. Scary Face while you were Swords Dancing? Come on. The oversight with Rock Slide was bad. And Lanturn using up all its moves against Jolteon, before he even knew what Pokémon you'd brought, was just stupid. He wasn't _that_much better than you. That's why you could've beaten him if you'd just done a couple of things better."

"Him being almost as bad doesn't help me qualify, does it?"

"Well," May replied with a shrug, "you were really not bad compared to some of the kids who come in here with an all-Fire team or wax poetic about how no true trainer wants their Pokémon to evolve and how they will conquer the League with their Rattata. Like that guy I'm up against later. His team reeks of trying to be Ash Ketchum; I almost feel sorry for him. If you need reassurance that you're not the worst trainer here, just watch my battle." She paused for a moment, and finally added, "And then there's the part where you have a _Dragonite_that you didn't use."

That, at least, was a fairly cheerful thought. He shrugged, finally finding the motivation to start eating, and after mulling it over for a minute while chewing, he was starting to dare hope that he had a chance of winning his second battle and possibly qualifying if it went well.

At least he would try his best.

* * *

May won her battle, and easily at that. Her opponent, the Ash Ketchum wannabe, was a small, mousey-haired boy who used a Pikachu, a Squirtle and a Pidgeot, and his battling abilities left so much to be desired that it was obvious even to Mark; he did not seem to have grasped the concept of switching, for instance, even when his Pikachu was about to be Earthquaked into oblivion. It really did made Mark feel slightly better about himself, if also kind of bad for the poor kid. Afterwards, May announced with satisfaction that she felt like taking the rest of the day off, while Mark, remembering that his second preliminary was in just two days, wandered uncertainly off to the library to take notes on Megan Hayfield's team.

After scrolling through the long list of Pokémon she had for the third time, he sighed and leaned back in the swivel chair in front of the computer. He unfocused his eyes, watching the small Pokémon images blur into the blue background on the screen, and then rubbed them, trying to think. There were just too darned many of them to prepare for in any sensible way. There had to be hundreds of ways she could make a team of three – maybe thousands? Math had never been his strong suit.

There had to be some way to narrow down what she might use even before finding out about the arena theme. He briefly considered taking his Pokémon out to their training spot to work it out with them, but then remembered with an uncomfortable sting in his heart that Charizard was still at the Pokémon Center – it wouldn't feel right without him. He'd mull it over tomorrow with all of them, but for now, he wanted to try to figure something out on his own to give them a jump start for tomorrow.

What Pokémon would she choose?

On what basis?

Scyther and May's voices spoke in his head to answer.

_If I were a trainer and I knew my opponent had a Dragonite, I'd assume he would use it._

_Then there's the part where you have a _Dragonite_ that you didn't use._

Mark leant back towards the computer to scroll through the list again. Did she have any decent Ice Pokémon? Yes, she had a Mamoswine. He could probably assume she'd most likely use that. Which of his Pokémon would be best against it? Charizard, definitely. That was one good team member to have, then.

But what else would she use? What was the most powerful Pokémon she had? Mark scrolled through the list again, remembering – yes, she had a Letaligon. She would be likely to use that, then, unless the arena theme made it completely impossible – especially since Mark had no Fighting Pokémon that would pose a serious threat to it. He did have Sandslash – he should perhaps use him, then, to fight the Letaligon, if just so that he wouldn't rely on Charizard for both it and Mamoswine.

What might she pick as her third? He really wasn't sure.

He tried a different approach. If he were her, what would he do?

He considered it. She might figure he would predict Mamoswine and try to counter it with Charizard – so she would probably make sure to have something to use against him. A Water or Rock-type, most likely – what did she have of that? A Lunatone, he found on the page he was already on – immune to Sandslash's Earthquake, resistant to Charizard's Flamethrower, and capable of pulling both Rock attacks on Charizard and Psychic attacks on Sandslash. Yes, if he were her, he would definitely use the Lunatone. That possibility needed to be taken care of, then.

Lunatone were weak to what?

He closed his eyes. It was classed as Rock and Psychic. It would be weak to Water, but Gyarados was of course not an option. Grass and Dark, but that was nothing helpful. Bug, but Scyther was really too weak to Rock attacks to risk it.

Steel.

He broke into a grin. Letal. Of course. And she'd be resistant to both its Rock and Psychic moves! Perfect. She really seemed to want to battle, anyway.

He leaned back in the chair, thinking over his plan again. Charizard, Sandslash and Letal. Seemed pretty solid. Common weaknesses weren't a problem – or wait. Water. He frowned. Water was a problem, wasn't it? Only Letal to deal with it, and her Iron Head wouldn't do much good. He looked over Megan's Pokémon again; plenty of Water-types, though none of them were particularly powerful. There was no good reason to suppose she wouldn't use one of them – in fact, she might easily use a Water-type rather than Lunatone as a Charizard counter.

And then, as he was considering how he could combat that possibility, he realized that again, he had somehow managed to neglect his most powerful Pokémon by far. He chuckled lightly to himself at the thought. If there was anything that gave him a possible edge at the League, it was Dragonite – he pretty much had to be on the team, whether Megan was expecting it or not.

Considering it, the only logical option seemed to be to leave Sandslash out and use Charizard, Dragonite and Letal. Dragonite could beat a Letaligon, couldn't he? He knew Fire Punch, after all. And Thunderpunch – he could handle a Water-type too, even. So long as it didn't know a powerful Ice attack that would beat him first… but then again Letal could back him up on that if the situation looked dire.

It seemed like a plan, at least if the arena did not screw things up too much.

Mark looked over Megan's Pokémon again to satisfy himself that the combination of Charizard, Dragonite and Letal should be able to handle most of them. Finally, reasonably confident about his deductions, he logged off the computer and left the library to find May.

* * *

Mark craned his neck over the heads of the crowd by the announcement screen, feeling a little disgruntled to note that May, being taller, was having a much easier time of it. "Can you see what it says about the main stadium?" he asked, half-shouting over the chatter.

"It's… Flying, I think it says. Yeah, flying."

Mark blinked. "Flying? What are flying arenas like?"

"Small, hovering platforms at different heights," she replied. "Any Pokémon that falls onto the ground is out. You've probably seen one."

"Right," he muttered, vaguely recalling some match he had seen on TV once. "Hey, that's not bad."

"Not bad at all," she agreed. "You've always had too many Flying-types, anyway."

They separated soon after. May was apparently going to watch one of Taylor's preliminary matches, which was to start at noon; Mark, however, had insisted on getting Charizard from the Pokémon Center first thing in the morning, and so they could go straight to their usual training spot from the trainer lodges, where Mark sent out the others.

"Flying," he said. "The arena theme's flying. It's an arena with hovering platforms where you're considered fainted if you fall."

He briefly explained his thoughts on Megan's Pokémon from the day before, but finished with, "But since we're on a flying arena, it would probably be better to use Scyther than Letal so you can all fly."

"No, no, no," Letal said in agitation just as he had said the last word. "That is stupid. Short-sighted. She could bring in any Rock-type and wipe them out."

"Well, they'd be able to do all sorts of things against a Rock-type on this arena," Mark argued. "Knocking them down would make them helpless. Well, except Lunatone, but I guess Scyther could…"

"Anything with a Rock attack."

"Fine. What about Jolteon? It'll be hard for a Ground-type to do much up there, so he should be pretty well off. And he's agile enough that he'd do well on the arena."

"There are more Ground moves than Earthquake."

Mark turned towards Letal in irritation. "You're weak to Ground moves too, you know," he said. "I know you want to battle, but we're never going to qualify if we don't try to pick a team that makes some sense on the arena. You don't really have any ranged attacks besides Tri Attack, and your armor could make it kind of hard for you to manage any feats of acrobatics, couldn't it?"

Letal turned and then lay down on the ground a few paces away, her back turned towards Mark. "Fine," she muttered, laying her head down on her forepaws and pretending to sleep.

He sighed and waited a few moments. Part of him kind of wanted to just put her on the team to please her, but he shut that part firmly away; he didn't want to let her boss him around. "Dragonite, Charizard and Jolteon, then? Any ideas?"

They spent the rest of the day considering Megan's Pokémon one by one, mulling over possible strategies to employ against them on a flying arena and the odds she would use each of them, save for sometime in the early afternoon when they took a break to eat (Mark met May in the trainer lodge dining hall and spent his lunch listening to her ranting about how cheap and talentless Taylor was). Finally in the evening, when it was about the time that he had agreed to meet May for dinner, they had just about worked out how they would handle the battle, and Mark was fairly confident when he recalled the Pokémon and climbed onto Charizard's back to return to the lodge.

Mark felt it only moments after they had taken off, having become sensitive enough to Charizard's muscle movements to tell that his wingbeats were heavier than usual: something was wrong. His mind jumped to overworkedness, strain – why was he having him fly him around just after that battle with Aaron White? He felt a sting of pain in his gut at the thought.

"Are you okay?" he asked, leaning carefully forward.

"It's probably nothing," Charizard mumbled. "It's not far, anyway."

The very fact Charizard acknowledged there was an 'it' only confirmed Mark's suspicions. "What's probably nothing?"

"I've just been feeling a bit nauseous today. It's gotten worse over the day, but I'll probably sleep it off."

Mark's heart skipped a beat – an overreaction to what was probably just a minor sickness, his rational mind tried to tell him, but having a second scare about Charizard's wellbeing in just two days was making him paranoid. "No, really, we should land," he said, and despite the Pokémon's nonchalant attitude, something seemed to relax gratefully in Charizard's muscles as he dived and landed clumsily on the ground not far outside the League HQ area. As Mark climbed from his back, the dragon sneezed violently, sending flames licking the ground a few meters in front of him.

"I'll get you to the Pokémon Center," Mark murmured, fumbling for the right Pokéball with trembling fingers. _In the ball, he won't get worse. Nurse Joy will know what to do._ "Don't worry." The beam absorbed him. _Oh, God, what if it's serious?_

He clutched the minimized ball in the palm of his hand and ran towards the gate.

_It probably isn't. Why would it be?_

His mind made up some crazy conspiracy theory about Taylor trying to get them out of the way.

_That's stupid. It's what you thought yesterday too._

But there was no telling.

He was getting ready to fling open the doors of the Pokémon Center, half-throwing himself against the doorway before remembering that it was an automatic door. He stumbled inside while various trainers looked disinterestedly up. Standing behind the counter was the same nurse who had treated Charizard yesterday; he hurried towards her.

"It's… It's my Charizard again," he said, panting. "I think he's sick or something…"

"Sick how?"

"Well, he's… sort of weak and dizzy, I guess…"

The nurse stepped around the counter. "Why don't you come with me to the back and send him out so I can see him?"

Mark complied, following her into the back room. Injured Pokémon lay sleeping or unconscious on variously sized beds along the walls, the steady pulses of heart monitors a background noise that barely registered in his mind. He maximized the ball that was still clutched in his hand and released Charizard onto a particular bed that the nurse indicated to him; she immediately picked his tail up and draped it over a stirrup to keep it off the floor and mattress and then scuttled into a storage room while the dragon lay shakily down and looked at Mark.

"Feeling any different?" Mark asked quietly. Charizard shook his head.

The nurse returned with a device that she pressed against Charizard's side for a few seconds before reading something off it. "Just as I thought," she muttered.

"What?"

"Pokérus. There's been an epidemic of it here lately – it seems that Rick Lancaster's brother, that Taylor kid, brought it with his Pokémon. No," she added upon seeing the look on Mark's face, "it is not dangerous in the least."

"No?"

"Quite the opposite, actually. Normally they fight it off on their own by producing antibodies that in the long run make them end up stronger. The little dip in water yesterday must have weakened his immune system sufficiently to make the actual disease get the chance to rear its ugly head. I should have thought to test him then."

"So is he going to be okay?"

"Sure. With an antibody injection and a good night's sleep, he'll be in perfect shape by tomorrow morning. But even without it, it is not severe and would have gone away in a couple of days, once the immune system got back on track."

Mark took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.

Charizard smiled weakly up at him. "You see? It was nothing to worry about."

"No, it wasn't." Though Taylor was behind it, in a sense, after all. He chuckled inwardly at the thought.

"Just leave him here. You can come get him tomorrow."

"Thanks. Good night, Charizard."

"Good night, Mark."

He left, breathing another sigh of relief as he exited the building into the cool night.

* * *

Mark slept a lot better that night than he had before the previous match, and longer too, since this battle was to be at noon. After having breakfast with May and spending some idle time drawing until eleven thirty, he headed towards the League office building to retrieve his Pokémon from the drug trials.

"Which three are you going to use for your battle?" asked the lady at the reception desk when he had given her his name tag.

"Charizard, Dragonite and Jolteon."

She nodded and turned to her computer, but then peered at the screen. "I'm sorry, but it appears you did not turn your Charizard in for examination yesterday."

Mark was puzzled for a brief moment before realizing why. "Right. He's still at the Pokémon Center. I'll go get him."

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that," said the woman. "No Pokémon can participate in a League match unless it comes straight from the examination and drug trials. If your Charizard was not here last night, you cannot use him in your battle. I'm sorry."

Mark stared at her, dumbfounded. "What? Can't I just get him and you test him before the battle begins?"

"Getting the full results takes several hours," she said, shaking her head. "The judges will be notified of the mistake and take it into account when judging your performance, but you will have to select some other Pokémon in his stead."

Of course. Something always had to go wrong.

"Give me a minute," he muttered and sat down on a nearby waiting chair to think it over.

No Charizard. That meant he direly needed something that could take on Megan's Mamoswine to support Dragonite and Jolteon, and his choices were limited – Sandslash and Scyther were both weak to Ice attacks and Letal to Ground ones. Sandslash was pretty much out of the picture; his attacking capabilities were limited on the arena and the best attack he could use on it was Gyro Ball, which was most effective if the opponent was particularly fast, and Mamoswine was not. Both Scyther and Letal could pull a super effective attack on it – Letal with Iron Head and Scyther with Brick Break – but Scyther was of course the one who could fly and had Pursuit and U-turn. The Mamoswine's capacity for using Ground moves would be severely limited by the arena, on the other hand, and Letal's Iron Head could take advantage of her natural type affiliations, which Scyther's Brick Break could not. What he needed most of all was just something he could send out reasonably safely against Mamoswine – and that was probably Letal. However, Scyther was undeniably more generally useful, being both able to fly and having Pursuit and U-turn – he would probably be the better choice.

But what if he used them both? Without Charizard, there was no longer any Water vulnerability on the team, lessening the need for Jolteon. Having Electric attacks handy was nice when seeing more Flying-types than usual was to be expected, but not exactly necessary, besides that Dragonite did know Thunderpunch if he came to need it. And having both would provide the most solid support for Dragonite, in case Mamoswine beat one of them.

Well. It appeared Letal would get to battle after all.

"Okay," he said to the receptionist woman, "then I'm taking Dragonite, Scyther and Letal."

She disappeared into a back room and came back with the three Pokéballs. "Come on, then."

He walked with her to the main stadium, a lot bigger and more intimidating than the one he had had his first preliminary in. There she let him in through the door to the trainer stand, wished him luck and closed it behind him.

Mark took a deep breath, feeling the three Pokéballs at his belt with his fingers, and walked up the stairs.

He was stunned by the sight of the arena as he stepped through the final doorway out onto the trainer stand. The floor had been lowered, so below the metal railing around the trainer stand, there was a considerable fall down. Flat, circular platforms at various heights and sizes hovered unsupported in the air all around. Two platforms, one of them normal and the other consisting of a miniature pool for Water Pokémon, were nearest to him at around the same height as the trainer stand, while the rest looked just about accessible from there through a series of jumps for a reasonably agile Pokémon.

Was Letal a reasonably agile Pokémon? He wasn't sure. What good would Letal be in the battle if she couldn't even get across to where Mamoswine was? He really should have thought this out better.

Megan Hayfield emerged on the other side of the arena, so far away that he had to look at the status screen close-up to recognize her. She shook her head, her long, dark brown hair swishing behind her with deliberate grace, and winked at the camera before looking over towards Mark.

They waited. The chattering of the spectators made him uncomfortably aware of their presence. May was there somewhere, but at this distance he couldn't tell one blue-haired girl from another, and even if it wasn't the most common of hair colors, there were quite a few bluettes in the audience. He wasn't even really sure he wanted to find her. It would only make him more nervous to be aware of her sitting there, watching and probably shaking her head over everything he did wrong.

"Trainers, ready Pokéballs," came a voice on the speakers after what seemed like an eternity. Mark jumped, not quite certain which Pokémon he should send out first; his hand drifted over the three Pokéballs at his belt.

He considered Letal, but what if she turned out to be unable to move around well on the arena and Megan happened to open with something that had long-ranged moves?

"Ready…"

Megan had to be expecting him to use Dragonite. If she started with an Ice-type, he'd rather have Scyther out.

"Set…"

But Dragonite was more powerful and had a wider variety of moves that could be employed against a wider variety of Pokémon. Scyther had more weaknesses, fewer resistances.

His hand moved to Dragonite's ball.

"Throw!"

What was he doing? Of course she'd be anticipating Dragonite. He clumsily jerked his hand back to Scyther's ball and grabbed it in a panic, throwing it as fast as he could. He noted with relief that Megan's ball did not pop open until a fraction of a second later: that meant he would not be disqualified for sending out his first Pokémon too late. Then he realized that the red light from Megan's ball was materializing into Lunatone, and his heart sank again.

"Scyther, U-turn!" he said quickly, jerking his head back to his own Pokémon as the mantis was emerging in mid-air.

"Lunatone, Ancientpower!" ordered Megan.

Scyther might have been faster, but Lunatone had the advantage of having already fully formed, and it did not need to move. While Scyther was zooming across the arena with his scythes raised, Lunatone closed its eyes and glowed with a bright blue aura. At first, nothing happened and Mark thought Scyther would make it to the other side before the attack hit; then a wave of large chunks of rock, bathed in the same blue aura, rose up through the platforms as if insubstantial and smashed very substantially into the mantis. Scyther was thrown sideways and narrowly avoided crashing into a platform, but quickly regained his directions, smacked his body into Lunatone's and then dissolved into red energy that shot back across the arena and into his Pokéball.

Mark placed the ball back on his belt and considered what to do – he had brought Letal largely for the purpose of taking on Lunatone, but he was beginning to regret that decision more with every passing moment. On the other hand, it would not be wise to subject Dragonite to unnecessary injuries, and he could always recall Letal if worse came to worst. If there was any member of Megan's team she could beat, Lunatone was it.

"Go, Letal!" he shouted, aiming for a moment before he threw the ball – having Letal emerge in mid-air would not be a good idea.

The ball opened and released a white shape on the nearest platform. As the light faded from Letal's form, she looked quickly around, throwing a vaguely surprised glance towards Mark before facing her opponent. Of course, she hadn't expected to be used in this battle, but at least she did not seem about to complain.

"Okay, Letal, hit it with Iron Head!" Mark called.

"Lunatone, use Cosmic Power!" Megan ordered.

Letal darted to the edge of the platform and leapt; Mark's heart jumped for some reason. He held the ball ready to recall her if she began to fall.

But she didn't fall. She landed neatly on the next platform, a bit higher than the one she had been on, and immediately raced towards the other edge of that platform to jump up from there to the next. In the meantime, Lunatone had closed its eyes and begun to gather defensive energy from the air, silvery dust swirling around its crescent-shaped body.

Mark watched in astonishment as Letal made her way from platform to platform without so much as hesitating before a leap. Surely she couldn't have a lot of experience fighting in uneven landscape where jumping was an important skill – they'd trained precise jumping at one point in the mountains, but she had never really seemed that particularly good at it then. Then again, that was at the time when she was the most dull and expended the least effort in whatever they were doing.

Letal made the final jump onto Lunatone's platform, her entire body took on a metallic sheen, and she smashed her head into the Psychic Pokémon's body. Lunatone rebounded backwards before bouncing to its former location; Mark thought it looked kind of cracked, but he could have been imagining it.

"Lunatone, Earth Power!"

Mark's stomach fluttered in panic at the realization that he had overlooked a Ground move that Lunatone knew that might be possible to use on a flying arena. "Iron Head it again!" he blurted out.

Letal's body turned metallic again before she smashed her head into the Rock Pokémon a second time. Lunatone was thrown back by the impact, little pebbles of rock falling loose from its body, and closed its eyes to concentrate for its attack.

Without really thinking, Mark took out Letal's ball and pressed the recall button. "Come back!" he shouted as the red Pokéball beam zoomed across the arena and dissolved Letal just as the platform underneath her exploded with the raw power of the Earth itself. He knew it was frowned upon to time a recall so that the opponent's attack hit thin air, but he hoped it wouldn't hurt his score too much to do it once. It was only after he thought this that he actually realized that switching to begin with had been a terrible move – Lunatone could pull a super effective move on all of his Pokémon, but Letal was in the least danger from it, since it didn't have a native Ground-type to boost Earth Power's potency.

But it was too late to change his mind now. He reattached Letal's ball to his belt, taking out Dragonite's instead.

"Dragonite, use Aqua Tail!" he shouted as he threw it.

"Lunatone, Ancientpower!" Megan countered.

Dragonite materialized in the air and began to thrust himself forward while Lunatone took on a blue glow. Rocks rose through the platforms and smashed into Dragonite from below, sending him bouncing upwards, but he quickly turned down towards Lunatone again, disintegrated his tail into water and took a dive. The tail smacked into Lunatone, throwing it back, but it rebounded quickly to its former place.

Mark suddenly realized that Lunatone was still glowing with a steady throb of blue light. The attack was powering it up. Darn it.

"Dragonite, use a Dragon Dance!" he called.

"Heal Block!" shouted Megan.

Dragonite pulled back from Lunatone and began to spin around in the air, increasing his speed gradually as he powered his muscles. Meanwhile, Lunatone closed its eyes to focus and Dragonite was wrapped in a pink aura. Mark recalled that Heal Block prevented his body from healing itself: he would not be able to make him Roost now. He winced; he'd been hoping to use that to make Dragonite last as long as possible. But switching him out would hardly help; Lunatone had gotten its powers sufficiently boosted to make giving it the time to prepare an extra attack a potentially fatal mistake.

"Ancientpower!" Megan ordered.

"Aqua Tail!" Mark yelled quickly as Dragonite's dance began to slow.

The dragon Pokémon zoomed downwards, faster now after the Dragon Dance, his tail transforming immediately into water before hitting the Lunatone with a splash. The Rock Pokémon shuddered but sent an Ancientpower flying up at Dragonite anyway, and the dragon was knocked almost half of the way back across the arena, a rock crushing one of his wings as he went. He cried out in pain and wobbled disconcertingly in the air as he righted himself. Mark bit his lip: the blue glow was lingering on Lunatone's body again, and now it had powered itself up sufficiently to make him doubt that Dragonite could reach it again, particularly now that he had injured himself. He wasn't sure he could knock it out within one special attack.

All he could do was make sure his next Pokémon would get the chance to beat it.

"Thunder Wave!" he called just as Megan opened her mouth to order a final Ancientpower.

Dragonite lifted his head with difficulty, focusing on the Lunatone even as it began to take on a blue glow. A shower of sparks erupted from his mouth and shot across the arena while ancient rocks ascended through the platforms below him, and he took a last strained look down before the rocks crashed into him. Dragonite slipped into unconsciousness and began to fall; Mark silently took out his Pokéball and recalled him. But he had succeeded: Lunatone's body was sparkling with paralyzing electricity.

He wasn't sure if that slowed it down enough to let Letal reach it before it could strike, but Scyther definitely could.

"Go!" he shouted, throwing the mantis's ball into the arena. "X-Scissor!"

Scyther emerged from the ball and immediately zoomed across towards Lunatone.

"One more Ancientpower!" yelled Megan, but Scyther had reached Lunatone by the time she finished the command. He slashed both of his scythes powerfully across Lunatone's body, the power of his Bug type allowing him to slice into the rock, and the Psychic Pokémon let out a peculiar groan before its levitation faltered and it fell onto the platform like a lump of stone.

Megan frowned momentarily in disappointment, but called, "Come back, Lunatone! You did great!"

The red Pokéball beam absorbed her Pokémon as Scyther retreated towards the center of the arena, watching the platform in front of Megan warily.

The girl thought for a moment and then pulled out her next ball. "Delibird, go!" she shouted.

Mark watched the small penguin materialize, surprised. Delibird? When he'd looked over her Pokémon, he'd skipped right over the Delibird – he hadn't imagined it was the sort of Pokémon anyone would really use in the League, especially when she also had a Mamoswine. Perhaps she'd decided to use as many Ice-types as she could? In any case, Letal would be able to deal with it quicker.

"Scyther, retu–"

"Ice Shard!"

Mark was still reaching for the Pokéball when the Delibird tossed a small shard of ice straight at Scyther. It hit him squarely in the torso, throwing him backwards by the impact. Scyther growled in pain and glared at the Delibird for a quick second but then faced Mark again. He raised the ball up, the force field already down, and let the beam absorb the bug Pokémon, silently irritated at Megan for attacking while he was recalling his Pokémon even though he reminded himself that it was no worse than recalling a Pokémon just before a hit. Technically, this had just made them even, and something in Megan's smugly satisfied expression on the status screen told him that was precisely why she had done it.

He placed Scyther's ball back on his belt and took out Letal's. "Go!" he shouted. "Use Iron Head!"

"Delibird, Brick Break!"

Oh, crap.

Letal made her way across the arena, leaping nimbly from platform to platform as she had before; the Delibird took off in awkward flight on its flipperlike wings, let out a shrill battle cry and dived straight down towards her.

Mark couldn't really change his mind after giving a clear command, but watched desperately as the two Pokémon approached each other, Letal's body completely metallic, the end of Delibird's stubby wing drawn back into a fist around the bag of food it was holding.

Letal smacked her head into the Delibird's belly, causing it to let out a strangled squeak; the penguin's food bag thwacked her upside the head, making her grunt in pain.

"Letal, come back," Mark said quickly, already holding the ball forward so as to recall Letal before the Delibird got the chance to pull another quick move. She was absorbed into the beam.

He sighed. Scyther was weak to Ice attacks, which also put him at a disadvantage against the Delibird, but at least he was quicker and could attack it while it was flying, and he was not as vulnerable against its Ice moves as Letal was to Brick Break. However, he had also been worn down more in the battle, and he had no super effective moves to use. Mark wasn't entirely sure if switching was the right choice here. But again, there was little he could do about it now.

"Scyther, go!" he called. "Use Aerial Ace!"

"Ice Punch!" ordered Megan.

Scyther emerged from the ball and darted towards the Delibird. It took awkward flight again, curling the tip of its wing into a fist while icicles formed around it, and thrust it towards Scyther as the mantis reached it.

It missed. Mark watched in puzzlement as its fist hit thin air without Scyther even having made any great effort to dodge; he passed above the penguin and delivered a precisely aimed slash to its back that made it caw in annoyance, its flight faltering. It landed on a platform below it and shook its fist towards the mantis Pokémon.

It suddenly came to Mark: it had to be using that one ability, the one that let it focus its power to strengthen its attacks at the expense of its accuracy. And that meant he had to be able to exploit it somehow.

"Scyther, use Agility!" he called. Scyther glanced at him with a nod and then built up speed with his wings, zooming across the arena and back within a few seconds.

"Another Ice Punch, Delibird!" Megan shouted.

"Dodge and use Aerial Ace!" Mark countered, his heart thumping in his chest. Normally just being fast could only marginally improve the ability to evade attacks, but if the Delibird's accuracy was already compromised...

Megan's Delibird took flight again and thrust towards where Scyther was hovering in mid-air, ice crystals again circling its fist, but a split second before it threw the punch, Scyther had darted to the left and raised his scythe for another attack. He struck at its back again with a satisfied grin, and Mark grinned with him: he'd actually figured out a strategy that worked!

"Keep that up, Scyther!"

The mantis zoomed towards the Delibird again; it tried to strike back at him but yet again he dodged and managed to take a blow at it instead.

"Aerial Ace, Delibird!" Megan ordered, and Mark saw his strategy crumble before his eyes as the Delibird darted towards Scyther with greater speed than before and slashed across his right arm and wing with its beak before he had the time to react. Scyther growled and gave it one more slash to the back with his left scythe, but Mark could tell he was getting weak – he held his other scythe awkwardly and his right wing had been torn a little, in addition to all the previous cuts and bruises he had suffered in the battle. The Delibird was not in top shape either, though, its feathers ruffled and its flight uneven and rickety.

"Just get one more Aerial Ace in!" Mark called. He wasn't sure it would do the trick, but he had to try.

"Hit it first!" Megan shouted.

But even though he was weakened, Scyther was still faster than Delibird, and Mark had been the first to speak. Before the penguin could respond to her order, Scyther spun around to its back and slashed at one of its flipper-wings. White feathers tore off the Delibird and it squawked as it began to lose its already limited flying ability.

Scyther used the last of his strength to knock the falling Delibird aside so that it missed the platform below them and began to plunge down towards the ground. It screeched in panic, desperately flapping its uninjured wing to no avail. Mark saw one of the judges raise a red flag: Delibird was considered fainted according to the rules of the arena.

Megan pursed her lips sourly as she recalled her Pokémon and prepared to take out her final ball.

Scyther had landed on the platform and was hunched over, supporting his body with his left scythe as he panted; he slowly straightened himself, took a quick glance back at his trainer, and then turned back to watch Megan's end of the arena.

Mark understood the meaning of that exhausted glance: Scyther could still fight, but only barely, and he would likely not survive as much as a single attack on top of this. However, being still just barely able to fight meant that he was not yet considered fainted: Mark could keep him behind to secure himself against a draw, just like Aaron White had done in the previous battle.

"Return!" he called just as Megan threw her own ball forward. While Scyther gratefully disintegrated into red energy, a large, white shape emerged on Megan's platform: four long legs, a slender body, a long neck, a small head with three blades extending backwards from the metallic mask on its head…

A Letaligon.

The glow faded from the Pokémon and Mark looked at it with a strange feeling of detachment. Its red eyes were focused upon him, its powerful claws scratching impatiently at the floor of the platform as it shook its head, the sun flashing off its metallic blades. He'd almost forgotten Megan had a Letaligon and to see it now when his only real remaining Pokémon was Letal felt bizarre.

He almost laughed.

"Go!" he called as he hurled his final Pokéball into the arena. On the status screen, he saw Megan watch the Pokémon form with a confident smirk on her face.

Mark could somehow see the tension in Letal the moment she set eyes upon her opponent: something in her stance changed, her neck tightened. For her, of course, she wasn't just battling her evolved form while already at a disadvantage due to having taken a couple of hits in the battle before: she was about to battle her own evolved form that she would probably never become.

He felt sorry for her for a moment, but then realized that she looked more satisfied than she had in weeks; excited, even. Mark remembered her plans about her father: perhaps she just wanted to see if she had the ability to defeat a Letaligon even as a Letal?

"Letaligon, use Agility!" came Megan's command, snapping him back to reality.

He couldn't remember Letal knowing any moves that would be any good against Letaligon. This would probably be a slow, lengthy battle where they'd do little damage in each hit until they'd worn themselves out, then: there was little point in going for an all-out offensive.

"Iron Defense, Letal!" Mark yelled. She began to concentrate, turning even her non-armored parts into metal, while Megan's Letaligon leapt from platform to platform on her side, building up speed as it went.

"Letaligon, Swords Dance!"

The Letaligon stopped and began to perform a series of complex moves, swishing its blades this way and that. Mark watched it hopelessly: no matter how much Letal boosted her defensive abilities, it could match it by boosting its own offensive abilities. There didn't seem to be any way to get an advantage this way.

Perhaps she could just put it to sleep with Hypnosis? He hesitated; it didn't seem like the best way to waste her third move when she would never be able to hurt it very much in the time that it was asleep even if the move did succeed.

He suddenly realized that Letal was giving him a meaningful look from where she was standing on the nearest platform. He turned toward her and she motioned oddly with her head, as if to bash it against an invisible wall.

Everything suddenly clicked into place. Rock Smash. He'd taught her that move just to clear some boulders away from the place where they trained. He hadn't thought it would ever actually be useful in battle – but it definitely was now.

"Letaligon, use Iron Tail!" called Megan.

"Letal, Rock Smash!" Mark countered with newfound confidence.

The Letaligon growled and took a leap to a nearby platform, its metallic tail glowing. Letal lowered her head and leapt to the next platform and then to the next with a grace that at least in Mark's biased opinion far surpassed that of her opponent.

The two Pokémon met on one of the larger platforms closer to Mark's side. The Letaligon turned around and smacked its tail into Letal's side; she grunted and retaliated by smashing her head into the Letaligon's vulnerable underbelly. It screeched in pain.

"Letaligon, Tri Attack!" Megan shouted. Her Pokémon reacted immediately, its three blades glowing red, yellow and blue before it bowed its head quickly and sent three beams shooting into Letal's body. She was thrown backwards, dangerously close to the edge of the platform, but turned quickly around and jumped to a smaller platform below on the right while she regained her balance. She looked back up towards the Letaligon with fierce determination in her eyes.

"Another Rock Smash!" Mark called.

Letal crouched to jump – and stopped. For a heartbeat, she was puzzlingly still, the Letaligon looking down at her with a glint of superiority; then a sparkle of electricity passed over her back.

"No!" Mark blurted out in disbelief. One Tri Attack and she was paralyzed – one! It just wasn't fair. He gritted his teeth in frustration as Letal tried to move. He could have sworn he saw the Letaligon grin even through the metal mask.

"Letaligon, push it off the platform with another Iron Tail!"

"Metal Burst!" Mark countered quickly, hoping Letal would regain her mobility in time.

The Letaligon jumped down to Letal's platform and swished its glowing tail at her still crouching form. It hit her forcefully and her body was thrown like a ragdoll towards the edge...

She suddenly threw out her legs and extended her claws, grasping desperately at the floor of the platform. One of her hind legs was already off the edge; the other just barely managed to hold on by a toe or two. It was enough for her to throw herself back onto the platform, her entire body taking on a metallic sheen as she replicated the Letaligon's movements with greater force: her entire hindquarters smashed into its body like an iron fist and threw it straight off the edge of the platform.

The metal sheen of her body vanished as quickly as it had appeared; she ran towards that edge of the platform and saw the Letaligon managing to climb onto a lower platform off to the left.

"Letaligon, get it with Iron Tail again!"

"Letal, get to a bigger platform where it can't throw you off!" Mark called desperately, worried her paralysis might cause that scenario to repeat itself with less happy consequences. "And then try to meet it with Rock Smash!"

She leapt across a few platforms to get back to the larger one where they had been before while the Letaligon jumped across the lower platforms to get up there. It had to take a zigzag route of gradually rising ones that gave Letal a few seconds to examine where it would arrive from and prepare herself near the middle of the platform, ready to face it. She lowered her head, narrowing her eyes towards her ascending opponent.

The Letaligon let out a piercing, metallic cry as it took the final leap onto the large platform, its tail raised and shining with a bright white light. Letal was ready to meet it, crouched low to the ground.

The Letaligon smashed its tail down on her back, and Letal was immobile again: Mark groaned as a flurry of sparks scattered across her body and she was limply tossed aside. Megan looked at her Letaligon with a triumphant grin.

"One more Iron Tail!"

Mark saw Letal's paw twitch as she strained to move it, still lying helpless on her side. The Pokémon status screen showed a close-up of her, the desperate rage in her eyes almost painful to watch as the Letaligon's tail glowed and smashed down on her head. Mark thought he heard something crack, but he must have been imagining it; Letal raised it up with difficulty and began to try to rise to her feet.

"Iron Tail it again, Letaligon."

It obediently smacked her down again with another strike of its tail. She tried to rise again, her legs shaking at the effort; Mark bit his lip. Was it over?

The Letaligon's tail began to glow again even without a command, and it swung it, only to narrowly miss as Letal suddenly jumped onto the small lower platform she had been at before. Without even stopping to rest, she leapt back up towards the larger platform, where the Letaligon was waiting; she dodged a strike with its tail to deliver another Rock Smash to its soft underbelly. It roared and fired a Tri Attack at her, which threw her back by a little but was countered by a metallic mirror image of the attack that hit it back. The Letaligon shook its head angrily, beginning to circle Letal like prey while she crouched low, ready to strike.

"Letal..." Mark began, but she was a step ahead of him: as the Letaligon's attention momentarily shifted to listen to Mark's command, she bounded up to it, crashed her head into its armor and then bounded off towards another platform before it recovered sufficiently from the blow to strike back.

"Catch up with it!" Megan shouted.

The Letaligon jumped to follow Letal while she seemed to be racing as fast as she could between the platforms, taking a lot of daring leaps that Mark presumed to be intended to make the Letaligon's pursuit more difficult. In that department she was fairly successful – more than once, the Letaligon resorted to an alternative route and had to waste time to get back on track, somewhat making up for its clear advantage in speed. Mark figured she must be trying to tire it somehow, but she had been under far more strain in the battle so far – wouldn't she be worn out first? The Letaligon was still slowly catching up, now only a few platforms behind. What was she thinking? He looked at the close-up on the status screen, trying to read something from her. Her muscles were straining to run as fast as she could, her breathing rapid as she leapt more and more platforms in a rough circle around the arena. There was some sort of frantic glee in her eyes.

It suddenly came to him with a creeping feeling of dread. She wasn't trying to tire the Letaligon. She was trying to tire herself – it was the same trick from the Gym battle in Acaria City, a last desperate attempt to trigger evolution through an adrenaline rush.

It was a stupid, dangerous thing to do. The Acaria City nurse's angry words echoed in his head. This time he knew better. He had to recall her. His hand touched her Pokéball and stayed there.

He had no other Pokémon left to use. The Letaligon would beat Scyther in a single strike if he sent him out. He'd have to send Letal out again and let her continue her crazy little plan – except the Letaligon would have time to catch up with her while she was rematerializing – or forfeit the battle.

He couldn't. He had looked forward to the League since he was little. He couldn't just voluntarily throw away his last chance to qualify from the preliminaries in order to try to be smart for Letal.

He looked hopelessly at his Pokémon, still jumping frantically between platforms with the Letaligon following closely behind her. "Letal, stop!" he shouted desperately. "It won't work! Use Rock Smash! Please!"

Except it did work.

Mark stared as Letal's body was enveloped in a white glow. She jumped onto the platform next to Mark and stopped there, legs shaking as her form disappeared into blinding white light and began to grow. The Letaligon came to an abrupt halt behind her while the crowd in the audience stand exploded into wild cheering.

Letal's whole body expanded, legs and neck lengthening and paws bulging out to make room for the oversized claws; the other Pokémon watched it as if mesmerized, unable to attack her while she was protected by the evolutionary glow. She lowered her head as new blades began to grow out of the sides of her mask to match the new length of the top blade.

The white light faded, and she was a Letaligon just like Megan's.

Mark realized his mouth was open and closed it.

"Letaligon," Megan yelled over the still-deafening cheering of the audience, "use Iron Tail!"

"Counter it with Metal Burst!" Mark called, his heart beating wildly. Megan's Letaligon leapt towards the former Letal, its tail glowing as it smacked into her body, but with her renewed strength after evolution, she only staggered slightly before turning into pure metal to counter the attack –

She froze, the metallic sheen fading. Sparks leapt across her armor as the other Letaligon swung its tail again with a gleam of victory in its eyes, and she was knocked back, now dangerously close to the edge. She still couldn't move.

"One more time!" Megan shouted, and her Pokémon smashed its glowing tail into her one last time, sending her hind legs skirting off the edge.

Her front claws dug into the floor of the platform, forming three parallel scratches as she slipped further down –

"You can do it!" Mark blurted out, almost subconsciously. "You could do it earlier!"

Whether his words had anything to do with it or not (probably not), she regained her mobility a split second later and began to claw at the air with her hind legs, reaching forward with her right front paw. The other Letaligon walked towards her, the blades of its mask beginning to glow in bright colors now as it prepared a final attack to make her fall.

"Come on," Mark whispered as he watched, his knuckles tightening on the railing around the trainer stand. "You could do it earlier."

Letal – no, Letaligon – suddenly released her hold on the platform, the Tri Attack narrowly missing her as she fell. Mark's heart took a lurch in his chest until he saw her claw her way onto a lower platform and begin to make her way back up. Megan's Pokémon growled angrily and turned towards her.

"Letaligon, stay there and use a Swords Dance, quick!" Megan ordered sharply, and it stopped to begin the same peculiar dance as when it had first been sent out, swinging its blades in a series of rhythmic movements.

"Letaligon, use Rock Smash!" Mark called. It felt bizarre to say the new name, somehow.

She jumped up to the platform where the other Letaligon, having finished its Swords Dance, turned toward her to growl threateningly. Its tail glowed, and without warning, it leapt at her, striking a blow to her side. She stumbled and seemed momentarily to be paralyzed again – then she rammed her head at full force into her opponent.

Megan's Letaligon didn't anticipate the full power of the attack now that she had evolved, and it was knocked a few feet backwards, stumbling as it tried to regain its balance. That was when one hind paw stepped on air, and the creature let out a cry of surprise as it tumbled over itself, plunging over the left side of the leftmost platform on the arena.

The audience erupted into thunderous applause as a red flag was waved in the judge panel and a Pokéball beam absorbed Megan's falling Pokémon. "The winner is Mark Greenlet!" said the announcer's voice as the status screen changed to cross out Megan's Letaligon with a red X.

Mark was stunned for a moment; it took a second for his brain to register his victory – a 2-0 victory, no less, thanks to Scyther – but once it had, he found himself grinning like an idiot. They were all cheering for him – him and Letal.

She'd gotten him his first win at the League. And with a bit of luck, it might not have to be the last, either.

He was still holding her Pokéball in his palm; he raised it numbly to recall her. The newly evolved Letaligon stood alone on the platform and slowly straightened herself, raising her head high and joining the crowd in a roar of victory before she was absorbed back into the ball.


	50. The Rage of a Scyther

**The Ouen League - Chapter 49: The Rage of a Scyther**

"You know," May said as they walked from the Pokémon Center back to the trainer lodges, "you really weren't that bad this time. A couple of odd switches and you could probably have used Dragonite better even against the über-Lunatone, but there was some actual strategy going on in parts of it and Letal utilized the arena well. And in-battle evolution always gets you coolness points."

"The woman at the office building said they'd also take into account the confusion with Charizard," Mark said. "Think that will mean extra points too?"

"Almost definitely," May replied. "He's a Flying-type which would have been good on the arena and a Fire-type which would have been good against both Delibird and Letaligon. You really just might qualify now. Especially since you officially won 2-0. Good call with Scyther."

Mark nodded. "I guess you can thank Aaron White for that."

"What, don't I get any credit for pointing out you could do it too?"

Mark looked quizzically at May; she was smiling in a way that indicated it was a joke. He could never really be sure with her.

"Anyway," she went on, "that means you're done with the preliminaries and can just fool around for the next week and a half, but I recommend you start to work on reprogramming yourself in case you qualify. The knockout rounds are six-on-six with no switching. That means your Pokémon will be facing opponents they're weak against and you can't just recall them and send out something else instead. Practice moves that counter their weaknesses, evasive maneuvers, stuff like that."

"Your next preliminary match is the day after tomorrow, right?"

May nodded. "Not that I have to worry much. It's the guy we saw in that desert-themed match, remember? The one who lost, with the Glaceon."

"Oh, yeah." Mark paused. "Was he really that bad?"

"Well," May replied with a shrug, "I guess it was more his choice of Pokémon than him, per se. Maybe he learned from his mistakes with that after his first match. Still nothing special, though. I don't think I'll have any trouble with him."

Mark just nodded, wishing he had her confidence. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact he might actually qualify to the knockout phase; he'd been hoping for it, sure, but the prospect of actually having to start preparing for it and modifying his strategies for six-on-six switchless was oddly intimidating. In the preliminaries, he'd felt like he was just battling some kids like himself. If he qualified for the knockout rounds, he'd be facing some of the top sixteen first-time trainers in Ouen this year. How could he possibly be a match for _them_?

It suddenly struck him for the first time now, as they were walking through the door into the trainer lodge, that if he qualified, that made _him_ one of those top sixteen trainers. That couldn't be right. There was no way he would actually qualify. He hadn't even won both of his preliminary matches. May had to be mistaken somehow.

He summoned the courage to articulate his concerns once they'd gotten lunch from the buffet and sat down at their usual table.

"Well," May said, "as I keep saying, winning isn't the point in the preliminaries. It's all about showing off your Pokémon and your strategic thinking for the judges. You have a Dragonite and a Letaligon. You can sometimes strategize when you put your mind to it. You got pretty lucky by getting decent opponents. Thus, points. It's as simple as that."

"Lucky?" Mark repeated sceptically.

"Yes, lucky," she said with an emphatic nod. "You made yourself look better than you are. How impressed do you think the judges are that I beat Pipsqueak Ketchum the other day? You actually got to show off some of the best you can do, especially earlier. I mean, I can guarantee you that you got more points just now than I got for my first match. Some kids here probably think they'll qualify just because they won two matches through brute force against people who were obviously worse than them, when in reality people who lose against somebody good while using some strategy are getting much more points."

"So you think I really will qualify?" Mark asked hesitantly.

"Well, of course I don't _know_ if you'll qualify, but stop thinking you're out just because you lost a preliminary match. I'd think you have a chance, personally."

That was the end of that conversation; Mark still wasn't sure if he should dare to get his hopes up, but decided to take May's advice about preparing for the knockout rounds in case he did qualify – tomorrow, anyway. He didn't feel like training today.

Once they'd finished eating, May went off to train while Mark retreated to his room and took out Letaligon's Pokéball. He sat down on his bed and took a deep breath before he dropped the ball onto the floor and it released Letaligon in a flash of light.

"I did it," she said, only moments after she had fully materialized. "I evolved."

Her tone was strange: she sounded part incredulous, part triumphant and part somehow expectant. She looked down at her strong, black claws for a moment, flexing them, and then turned towards Mark, waiting for some sort of an answer.

"Congratulations," he said, not sure quite what he wanted to say or how to say it. "I mean, wow. I really didn't think you'd do it."

"But I did," she replied insistently. "You all thought I couldn't evolve and I still did."

Mark looked at her. "Yeah," he said. "You did."

"You wanted me to stop," she went on, still looking at him. "You told me it wouldn't work, but it did."

"Yeah," Mark replied again. "I guess I was wrong." He wondered momentarily what Nurse Joy of Acaria City would think of where this conversation was going. At least Letaligon looked slightly more satisfied now, stopped staring at Mark and looked around the room for a moment; it occurred to Mark that it must feel a lot smaller to her now that she was a Letaligon.

"When do we go back to Ruxido?" she asked at last.

"Not until after the League, remember," Mark said. "You were going to stay throughout the League and then we'd go there to release you."

"Oh," Letaligon answered and did not say anything more, but by now Mark had realized what it was he had really wanted to talk to her about.

"So Letaligon," he began, "are you still... do you still want to kill your father?"

"Yes," she said with a hint of defensive stubbornness to her voice. "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

Because Charmeleon had grown out of wanting to kill Scyther when he evolved. Because her evolution had been a sort of final chance for that entire situation to resolve itself before anybody had to be killed. But he didn't say anything.

"So… yeah, you were going to stay and continue to battle," he said eventually. When he got no immediate answer, he added, "You kind of have to now, since without Gyarados I only have six Pokémon. I can't make a full team without you."

"Yes," she replied distractedly as she examined the armor on her back. "I will. I just forgot." She looked up. "Can I go back in my Pokéball now?"

Mark nodded and took out her ball to recall her.

* * *

The next day, while May was off training for her second preliminary match, Mark lay in his bed with his sketchbook and began to put together a type vulnerability chart for his team. It was an idea that had popped into his head the day before: since he only had six Pokémon, it would be nice to get a good idea of what the major weaknesses of his team were and how to take measures against them.

His team's great weak spot was clearly the Rock weakness, with Charizard, Dragonite and Scyther all vulnerable, but on the upside, both Sandslash and Letaligon would be solid choices for dealing with Rock-types. Ice-types were also a threat to Sandslash, Dragonite and Scyther, but he had Charizard and Letaligon for them. Among the more minor weaknesses was Ground, for both Jolteon and Letaligon, though he of course had three Flying-types to take advantage of that…

He stopped all of a sudden. This really wasn't the right way to approach this, was it? In a battle with no switching, compounded weaknesses could hardly be as much of a problem as otherwise. Each Rock-type brought out into battle would only get to take down exactly one Pokémon that was weak to it, but he could then send out something that wasn't weak to it to beat it, without the opponent ever getting to take advantage of the fact Mark might have other Pokémon that were also weak to Rock.

He tore the page out of the sketchbook, crumpled it and threw it into the garbage before starting over by writing up a simple list of his Pokémon and their weaknesses.

_Charizard (Fire/Flying) – weak to Rock (x2), Water, Electric  
Jolteon (Electric) – weak to Ground  
Sandslash (Ground) – weak to Water, Grass, Ice  
Dragonite (Dragon/Flying) – weak to Ice (x2), Rock, Dragon  
Scyther (Bug/Flying) – weak to Rock (x2), Ice, Electric, Fire  
Letaligon (Normal/Steel) – weak to Fighting (x2), Ground, Fire_

Charizard. Rock, Water and Electric. What would he do against those types when unable to switch? He had no super-effective moves against any of them and probably couldn't learn a lot. The only type that would give him a fighting chance against Electric-types was Ground – he was pretty sure Charizard could learn the Earthquake TM. He'd have to shell out some money for it, but if he qualified, it would probably be worth it.

Earthquake would also help against Rock-types – which left Water. Water Pokémon were only weak to Grass and Electric attacks, and he was pretty sure Charizard couldn't get any of those. Or could he? He seemed to remember looking at a list sometime and being surprised by how many Pokémon could learn attacks like Thunder Fang, Fire Fang and Thunderpunch. Perhaps Charizard was one of them. And what Grass attacks were there again? The drains, Razor Leaf, Vine Whip – no way – Grass Knot, Leaf Blade, Solarbeam...

An image popped up in his head: a televised Old-Timers' League match, himself gazing mesmerized at the Charizard on the screen as it gathered the sun's energy into an orb in its mouth and fired a bright beam of light at the Swampert on the other side of the arena while the latter's trainer stared in horror. Charizard _could_ learn Solarbeam. Better still, he thought with a grin as he wrote it down, Solarbeam benefitted from Sunny Day just like his Fire moves, and it would beat Rock-types too. With it and Earthquake, Charizard should be reasonably well off no matter what was brought out against him.

Jolteon was more problematic. He definitely couldn't learn any Water, Grass or Ice moves to employ against the Ground-types that would inevitably be sent out against him. He did have Swift, but that wouldn't be very effective against the many Ground-types that were also Rock or Steel, and it wasn't an overly powerful attack anyhow. He had Pin Missile, but being a physical attack, that would probably be even worse. Mark frowned. Could Jolteon learn any other good special attacks that would help him against Ground-types? He couldn't really remember. Perhaps he should keep Jolteon for later when he could go to the library and look it up.

Sandslash. He'd always been a bit lacking in the moves department – usually, Mark had just stuck with Earthquake, but that wouldn't work now. The problem was that he was pretty sure there was no way Sandslash could learn Grass or Electric attacks that might beat Water-type opponents, and while he did have Gyro Ball, a Steel attack, which he could employ against Ice-types, and Poison Sting, which Grass-types would be vulnerable to, neither was a very reliably powerful attack. Admittedly only Grass was actually resistant to Earthquake, so he could still use that, but the situation was still pretty poor. And what about Flying-types, who would be immune to Earthquake altogether? Could Sandslash learn any Rock attacks? He thought about it. Yeah, he had Rollout, didn't he? Though that wasn't the best choice. Perhaps he could learn Rock Slide? He was pretty sure there was a TM for that. He made a note to look it up. That would also come in handy against the Ice-types. What about Grass-types? Could he learn Aerial Ace? That would be a possibility too.

Dragonite had a bigger movepool; he had Fire Punch against the Ice-types, Dragon Rush against other Dragon-types, and Aqua Tail against the Rock-types. He had a pretty solid way of defending himself against most anything, as far as Mark could tell. Nothing to worry about, then.

Scyther was troublesome; he had four weaknesses and not the widest variety of moves in the world. Though he had Brick Break against Rock-types, it was still a physical attack, which didn't mix well with the generally good physical defensive abilities of most Rock Pokémon; he'd have to be careful. Brick Break would also help against Ice-types. Electric and Fire Pokémon, on the other hand, he had nothing especially good against, and Mark doubted he could learn anything that would be – he just couldn't picture Scyther learning Ground, Rock or Water attacks. Perhaps he'd look it up anyway just in case.

And finally, Letaligon. She had Aerial Ace for any Fighting-types she might have to face, but Ground and Fire-types were harder to work around. Could she perhaps learn Earthquake too? That would handle the Fire-types. But Water, Grass or Ice moves for the Ground-types just weren't likely. She'd have to stick with her Normal or Steel attacks. They wouldn't be that bad, anyway.

He looked over the notes he'd written down. That was several TMs he'd have to get to try to counter all his Pokémon's weaknesses. He sighed. He couldn't go buying them now – he probably wouldn't qualify at all, and then there was no real reason to get them unless they were about to battle legendaries of particular types. But if he did qualify and bought all the TMs afterwards, they wouldn't have as much time to practice the new attacks before the start of the knockout rounds, and he could imagine that it would take some practice for them to master moves of completely different elements well enough to hold their own against something with a type advantage. The extra days would probably count.

He put the sketchbook down on the bedside table and thought about it. He wanted to be hopeful – even May was hopeful on his behalf, which was saying something – but he really could not reasonably believe he would qualify, and since he was still wasting his parents' money, he really owed it to them to be reasonable about it.

Especially since his parents thought he was dead.

_"They don't,"_ said a voice in his head; Mark momentarily jumped. It had been a while since he'd spoken to Chaletwo and the sensation had become bizarrely unfamiliar.

"Hm?" he asked aloud.

_"They don't think you're dead,"_ Chaletwo repeated.

Mark furrowed his brow. "Really? Then what do they think?"

_"They don't think anything,"_ Chaletwo answered. _"Or rather, they don't think about you. If they're reminded that you exist, they'll briefly remember you're out on a Pokémon journey and then move on to thinking about something else. That's what the memory modification does. It makes the memory of you feel like something unimportant and vague, and completely dissociates it from the death at the Pokémon Festival, if they remember that at all."_

"Huh." Mark somehow wasn't sure if he liked the idea of that better or worse than the idea that they thought he was dead. It was a bit creepy to think that they were pretty much being mind-controlled, unable to think about certain things – it seemed like it couldn't actually be _them_ if they weren't worrying about him all the time.

On the other hand, though he hadn't really thought about it before, he couldn't even imagine what kind of grief his parents had gone through when they'd heard he had died. They loved him more than anything else in the world. They'd probably been mortified. They must have cried for days. It was probably a good thing they could no longer remember it.

And then it struck him, strangely, almost absurdly: his parents loved him. They really, _really_ loved him. Looking back, he'd been a really annoying, obnoxious kid, really, always whining that they were overprotective and that he wanted to go on a Pokémon journey – he still didn't think it had been _right_ of them to forbid him to go, but suddenly it didn't seem quite so horribly wrong. "I promise I won't get myself killed," he had shouted as he waved goodbye, as a joke – and what had he then ended up doing? He'd gone and confirmed all their suspicions, gotten himself killed by Chaletwo just like they'd feared all along. They'd just been trying to keep him safe – their methods had been misguided, maybe, but they really didn't exist just to make his life difficult. And, well, he'd always _known_ that, nominally, but somehow this was the first time he truly realized it.

It struck him then, too, that he didn't have 'parent problems' like Letaligon. How could he even begin to think that? Her father had rejected her because she wasn't shiny. His had always loved him. He was lucky. They weren't the same at all.

And somehow, strangely, that made him feel better about it. He still hated the idea of Letaligon killing anyone – but he knew his Pokémon had killed before, and suddenly it didn't really matter anymore that it was her father. What made him being her father meaningful, anyway, if he'd never cared? He still wished she would get over it, but the thought was no longer as personally disturbing as it had used to be.

He blinked and started to chuckle. Realizing how much his own parents loved him (it sounded so stupid and cheesy in retrospect) had made him feel better about patricide. That didn't even make sense.

He lay there for a moment, thinking, but then stood up, picked up his sketchbook and headed off to the library to look up those TMs.

* * *

May's second preliminary battle went swimmingly – it was a little harder than she'd expected, or so she said afterwards, but she nonetheless won with her Blaziken comfortably healthy, if tired, by the time he delivered the final blow, and overall, though Mark probably wasn't the best judge of it, her strategies had at least _looked_ impressive.

After that, there were two tense days of waiting while the judging on all the battles was finalized, and the pair of them was briefly reunited as May helped him and the Pokémon get into the switchless mindset – she also voiced her approval of most of the TMs he had written down – though Mark could not shake off the thought of how stupid he would feel if it all turned out to be for nothing. He found himself swinging repeatedly between thinking he'd probably make the cut after all – usually after May talked him up some – and being convinced there was simply no way; by the evening of the ninth of August, he had simply decided to keep his expectations low, partly so he wouldn't be disappointed and partly just to decide _something_.

Finally, on the morning of the tenth, May dragged him out of bed at ten minutes to nine, hissing that everybody else was already waiting outside by the announcement screen.

Still half-asleep, he gobbled up some breakfast while May drummed her fingers on the table and gave him a speech. Apparently, she'd been trying to wake him up since half past the hour and had already had her breakfast, though for all Mark remembered she could as well have been making that up. Then she had apparently somehow used her name tag in a creative way to break into his room to wake him, which was kind of creepy, but he had to consider it a possibility, since he was pretty sure he'd locked the door the previous night. After May had checked her watch conspicuously several times, she finally ordered him to leave his half-eaten bacon and ushered him outside to the crowd of trainers while what he had managed to eat turned into butterflies in his stomach.

Mark couldn't really see a thing; although the announcement screen was mounted on the top of a metal pole, there were too many people taller than him standing on tiptoe to see over one another's heads all around. He could make out between a couple of heads that the screen was still blank, though. He looked unsurely up at May.

"It should be coming," she muttered without looking at him, and he tried to shift himself to the left in the hope that that would give him a convenient gap to look through; it didn't. He briefly considered going farther away so his line of sight would go over the crowd, but then realized that then he probably wouldn't be able to read what was on it from that far away anyway.

The screen flickered to life, immediately eliciting gasps and shouts from the waiting trainers, and the butterflies in Mark's stomach redoubled their fluttering efforts. He tried to push himself up using May's shoulder as leverage, but she elbowed him away. The standard blue background came on the screen, and then he couldn't see a thing as somebody quickly pushed past him to fill the only gap he had.

There was an explosion of disappointed groans, punctuated by a few screams of joy. Mark's heart skipped a beat as he made a final attempt to see something and then looked hopelessly up at May – she stood on tiptoe, craning her neck over the people in front of her, and then –

"I'm in!" she said and looked at him with a grin. His gaze alone must have gotten the message that he couldn't see anything across, because she almost immediately looked back at the screen. "And so are you – congratulations, Mark!"

For a moment he looked at her quizzically, having somehow forgotten exactly what they were there for. Even after he'd blinked that off, it took a few more seconds for it to sink in. "Wait, really?" he asked over the noise of the squabbling trainers. "I qualified?"

"Yup," she said. "It's right there."

The crowd was already thinning a little, so by shifting around some, Mark managed to finally get a good look at the screen for himself. It was a simple list of sixteen names – he noticed Aaron White's there before he found his own, but once he'd found it, it was definitely there. He read it a few times over to make sure.

He hadn't meant to be _this_ surprised if he managed to qualify. He'd thought he was reasonably used to the idea by now. The next thing to pop up in his head was that all the training and preparations wouldn't be for nothing after all.

After that, _I'd like to see Mrs. Grodski's face if she heard that I just qualified to the knockout rounds of the League!_ He grinned widely at the thought.

"So," May asked, "since we're both moving on to the knockout rounds, how about some joint training?"

"Not yet," he replied, still grinning. "I've got some TMs to buy."

* * *

For the next few days, they continued to train, mostly practicing their Pokémon's various weakness-countering moves. On the thirteenth, the first elimination round matchups were published; Mark's opponent was another one of those vaguely familiar faces he couldn't put his finger on, some guy named Michael Willows, while May was matched against none other than Aaron White. "Consider your defeat avenged," she'd said with bemusement upon finding out. Afterwards, they went to the library together to look up their opponents' teams and then separated to prepare for their battles.

"Okay, guys," Mark told his Pokémon at their usual training spot. "This guy has nine Pokémon of a variety of types. Let's see..." He looked at his notebook. "Blastoise, Breloom, Donphan, Flareon, Gallade, Lucario, Manectric, Scizor..." Mark glanced at Scyther; the Pokémon winced and looked away. "...And Staraptor."

"Three Fighting-types," Letaligon was quick to point out.

Mark nodded. "Yeah. That'll only really be a problem for you, though." He paused. "Well, first things first. Who has the least of a disadvantage against all of them, who could open the battle?"

"Dragonite," Charizard said immediately.

Mark looked over the list again. Yes, Michael Willows had no Ice, Rock or Dragon-types at all. "Okay, we'll start with him, then, if it's okay with you?"

Dragonite nodded in agreement along with the others.

They ran over a few hypothetical scenarios of how the battle might go from there; the first ended uncomfortably with Michael's Flareon and one extra Pokémon against Letaligon, and the rest had a worrying tendency to end pessimistically, though Letaligon was quick to point out that they were not accounting for the fact Michael would have to pick out his team of six beforehand and that they could win even when at a disadvantage.

"There's another thing," Mark said before they went to lunch. "This guy is thirteen. His profile says he's participated in leagues in other regions. I mean, the Pokémon he's using now have obviously not been in continuous training all that time, and if any of them were brought over from the other regions, they've regressed to around the levels of most of the trainers here, but he probably has a lot more experience as a trainer than most. I'm a bit worried about that."

Scyther shrugged. "If he's still playing in the regional Newcomers' Leagues and starting over his training every time, he can't be very confident in his abilities."

"I guess," Mark said reluctantly, still not convinced. "His team seems pretty good, though."

"We'll do our best," said Dragonite. "Even if we lose, it's great to have gotten this far."

Mark nodded. He was right about that. Again, Mrs. Grodski's imaginary scandalized expression popped up in his head and made him chuckle. At least he'd exceeded _her_ expectations already. Anything more was just a bonus, right?

* * *

Both of their battles were on the fifteenth, the first day of the knockout rounds; May's was in the morning, but she convinced Mark the night before that he'd be better off getting some sleep and then preparing for his own battle than watching hers. She won anyhow, as she told him when they met at the trainer lodge for lunch, though her lack of enthusiasm to tell him the details of how it went made him wonder if she'd perhaps had a more difficult time with Aaron White than she'd expected. Then he had to go to retrieve his Pokémon, she wished him luck, and they parted again.

He got his six Pokémon from the League offices and the receptionist lady took him to the trainer stand on the main battle arena, just like for the second preliminary match. He had a weird déjà vu feeling walking up those familiar stairs up to the metal railing on the trainer stand, but looking over the stadium was a decidedly different feeling: the arena was normal now, with no special type gimmicks; there was just rough, solid ground with white battle arena markings painted onto it and a large pool on the side, all in all making it look oddly solemn compared to the themed battlefields of the preliminaries.

Michael Willows, a tall boy with large, brown eyes and spiky, dark red hair stood on the other trainer stand, the trainer close-up on the giant screens on the side showing him looking around the audience stands with a faint smile. He was fiddling with a minimized Pokéball in his right hand; it was probably what he was going to bring out first. Mark figured it might not be such a bad idea to have the ball ready, so he took out Dragonite's. He looked around the audience stands as they filled and thought he saw May enter at one point, but couldn't be sure.

"Trainers, ready Pokéballs," said a voice at last. Mark saw Michael look up and maximize the ball he was holding; he did the same.

"Ready... set... throw!"

They hurled the balls out at the same time and Mark squinted at the shape of light that was forming out of Michael's ball. It became a slender, humanshape sort of thing – Lucario, he realized as the light began to fade away. Dragonite, fully formed, jumped into the air and began to fly.

"Dragonite, use a Fire Punch!" Mark shouted.

"Lucario, Dragon Pulse!" came the quick countercommand.

Lucario was quicker. It closed its eyes, the aura sensors on the sides of its head thrust out sideways, and a pulse of blue energy rippled through the air, striking Dragonite in mid-dive. He was knocked backwards in the air and winced in pain, but continued down towards his opponent as flames circled his fist and delivered a punch that knocked Lucario back like a ragdoll, though as a Fighting-type, it handled the fall gracefully and was quickly back on its feet.

"Now use an Ice Punch!" Michael ordered without missing a beat. Mark realized with dread that he hadn't really assumed Lucario would know something like Ice Punch, but there was little to do about it now.

"Dragonite, Dragon Dance!" he called, hoping Dragonite would survive long enough to benefit from it. Lucario was already leaping towards the dragon Pokémon and smashed its icy fist across his face; he cried out in pain and stumbled back before lifting farther up and beginning a quick dance in the air.

"Lucario, Metal Sound!"

Mark couldn't for the life of him remember what that attack did, but was none too keen on waiting to find out, so he shouted, "Fire Punch again!" as Dragonite finished his dance.

Lucario closed its eyes to focus again and then struck the metal spikes on the backs of its paws together, forming a loud, high-pitched sound that made Dragonite cringe and waver in his flight as he dived. Flames surrounded his paw again and he smacked it into Lucario's body, sending it flying even farther than before.

"And now Roost!" Mark said quickly.

"Lucario, Dragon Pulse!"

Dragonite landed on the ground some distance away and lay down curled up, closing his eyes as a mild blue glow surrounded his body to heal him. Meanwhile, Lucario concentrated and sent another pulse of draconic energy towards him. Strangely, this time it actually made him twist in pain, even though he was healing himself. Perhaps it was that Metal Sound's fault somehow.

"Use another Fire Punch!"

Dragonite managed to leap up and glide towards Lucario, fire gathering around his chubby fist...

"Another Dragon Pulse!"

Dragonite drove his fiery paw into Lucario's stomach and the aura Pokémon let itself roll backwards before sending another Dragon Pulse his way. The Roost had probably saved him; Dragonite was knocked harshly back, but he remained conscious.

"Fire Punch!" Mark shouted, his heart thumping. He was sure that would do the trick –

"Lucario, use Extremespeed!"

Lucario took a leap and turned into a dark blue blur in the air as it smacked itself into Dragonite's body. He bounced back in the air and then crashed into the ground, where he tried weakly to stand up.

"Another Extremespeed," called Michael, and his Lucario smashed down onto Dragonite's back, knocking the wind out of him and ensuring his defeat, to an explosion of cheering from the audience.

Mark bit his lip; seeing as Dragonite was his strongest Pokémon and they'd been mostly evenly matched type-wise, this didn't bode very well. "Good work, Dragonite," he said anyway, recalling the dragon's limp body.

Right. Lucario. His choices were pretty much Charizard and Sandslash, if he wanted the type advantage. However, Lucario had used up all of its four moves in the fight with Dragonite, and one of them was Ice Punch – he did not want Sandslash out there against something he _knew_ had an Ice attack. So Charizard was...

It suddenly struck him that, yes, Lucario had used up all of its four moves. Dragon Pulse, Ice Punch, Extremespeed and Metal Sound. Its Fighting advantages were null and void now. Which meant...

"Go, Letaligon!" he called, throwing her ball out. "Use Earthquake!"

"Lucario, use Metal Sound!"

Letaligon emerged on the battlefield as Lucario struck its metal spikes together again to produce that high-pitched ringing sound again. She winced but then reared up on her hind legs and came down to smash her front paws into the ground, producing a powerful ripple that travelled across the ground and underneath Lucario. It shivered and crouched down in an attempt to survive it; Letaligon eyed it warily, but finally it submitted to unconsciousness and fell limply on its side.

"You did great, Lucario," said Michael as he recalled his Pokémon. He paused for a moment before taking out his next ball. "Scizor, I choose you!"

Mark was momentarily puzzled; didn't Michael have a Donphan, a Flareon and two more Fighting-types? He couldn't possibly not have brought _any_ of them for the battle.

"Use Brick Break!" Michael ordered as the Bug Pokémon finished materializing. Of course.

"Letaligon, um, use a Metal Burst!" Mark called while trying to think. Would Iron Defense be worth it? She had little chance of beating it when it had an attack she was so weak to and the most effective attack she could use against it was the only moderately effective Earthquake, which she wasn't the best user of. Perhaps just Metal Bursting until she fainted was her best bet.

The Scizor, surprisingly quick, darted across the arena, pulling its right pincer back before it swung it like a hammer into Letaligon's side. She lost her balance momentarily and stumbled to regain it before her entire body turned metallic and swung a paw into the Scizor's body in an exaggerated reflection of its move. It was knocked back and landed on the ground but quickly rose to its feet.

"Swords Dance," Michael ordered. His Scizor began to mime dueling an invisible, impossibly quick opponent, spinning around to seemingly block several attacks at once in between precise strikes at the air; it was a much more dramatic execution of Swords Dance than how for example Scyther and Charizard did it, though Mark wasn't sure if that gave it any advantage or if it was just a personal quirk. He chuckled at it anyhow, half amused and half nervous: if he gave Scizor too much opportunity to power itself up, Charizard would have a more difficult time with it once it had finished Letaligon off.

"Hypnosis!" Mark finally came up with.

"Double Team, Scizor!"

Letaligon tried to focus on the Scizor's eyes, but it nonchalantly faced away from her and formed two illusory copies of itself before turning back around, something about its mouthless expression managing to seem smug.

Mark gritted his teeth. Hypnosis was unreliable enough as it was. "Earthquake, then," he ordered, and Letaligon reared up to smash her paws into the ground once again. The ground rippled; the three Scizor took a simultaneous leap to avoid it, but Letaligon, snarling in frustration, pounded the ground again to keep the quake going as they landed. The Earthquake ripples quickly dissolved the two copies, leaving the real Scizor alone.

"Brick Break again," Michael called. Scizor zoomed forward to smash a pincer into Letaligon's side, exactly where she'd been hit before; Mark might have been imagining it, but he was sure the armor dented visibly. Letaligon stumbled back, severely weakened.

"Metal Burst!" Mark shouted quickly.

"Bullet Punch!" countered Michael.

Before Letaligon could react, the Scizor smashed its pincer upwards into her jaw, and she let out a yelp of pain before she swayed and collapsed.

"Come back, Letaligon," Mark said, holding her ball forward to recall her. "Charizard, go!"

As the dragon Pokémon began to form, he was about to order a Flamethrower when he realized that Michael would probably send out Blastoise next, and once it was out, wasting time on a Sunny Day to set up Solarbeam could be a fatal mistake. Scizor, on the other hand, had little ability to harm Charizard and so would be a better choice to waste time against.

"Use Sunny Day and then Flamethrower, Charizard!" he called.

"Scizor, Double Team," ordered Michael.

Charizard took off from the ground and roared towards the cloudy sky. Instantly, the wispy clouds parted and the warmth of the sun's intensified rays spread over the stadium, heating it to almost uncomfortable levels. Scizor ignored it and split itself into three identical clones that simultaneously looked up at Charizard with mischievous tilts of their heads. The dragon growled, flames licking the corners of his mouth on the close-up screen before he threw his head forward and sent a bright cone of flame rushing towards the middle Scizor. The Scizor copies jumped into the air in an attempt to avoid it, but thanks to how much the Flamethrower had spread at that distance, it was impossible to avoid completely; flames licked the middle Scizor's legs, and they simply melted away. Now that its cover had been blown, the illusory copy vanished, leaving only two Scizor left, but each of them split again to create six identical ones. Charizard growled in annoyance.

Michael was probably trying to stall, Mark reasoned – trying to make Charizard exhaust himself as much as possible trying to dissolve the copies one by one, since Scizor could only hurt him minimally. There had to be a better way.

"Charizard, use Heat Wave!" Mark shouted, slightly wary about using up his third attack, but it was probably better than if Charizard had to face a Blastoise while too tired.

The dragon Pokémon took a deep breath and then opened his mouth. A mirage-like ripple of heat spread across the arena and the Scizor simultaneously jumped to avoid it; three of them could not get out of the way of the attack and dissolved, while the others remained, signifying the real one was one of them.

"Scizor, Brick Break!" Michael ordered quickly and the three Scizor shot into the air in some mixture of almost-flight and a leap and smashed their pincers into Charizard's body. The dragon turned quickly towards one of them – the one whose blow had actually struck – and released a bright Flamethrower from his mouth that caught the Scizor head-on. It crumpled towards the ground, charred and glowing with heat.

Mark smiled as the dragon looked quickly towards him. "Nice one, Charizard."

Michael recalled his Scizor and paused before grabbing another ball and throwing it. "Go, Manectric! Use Rain Dance!"

Of course. He wouldn't send Blastoise out into a Sunny Day when he had another Pokémon with a type advantage. "Charizard, Earthquake!" Mark called.

He had hoped Charizard would manage to be quicker, but no such luck. The Manectric howled at the sky, and sudden clouds began to form in a solid disk above the stadium even as Charizard took a dive and smashed his feet into the ground, sending ripples of pressure towards the doglike Pokémon; it cringed in pain, a few sparks flying loose from its fur.

The first few raindrops produced by the Rain Dance turned into a heavy downpour, and Mark was thankful for the force field that kept him dry. Charizard was not as lucky; he winced as the rain hit his tail flame and tried to keep it under his body to shield it. "Another Earthquake, Charizard," Mark ordered, figuring it would be worse in the end to try to use Sunny Day again and essentially give the Manectric a free move.

"Thunder!" called Michael.

The Manectric roared powerfully, sparks flying around its pyramid-shaped mane, and a bolt of lightning struck Charizard from the clouds above. He writhed and twisted in pain, faltering dangerously in his flight before he managed to regain control of his wings; then he managed to land to produce another tremor, though thanks to the shorter fall, it was weak compared to the first, and the Manectric shrugged it off with a worrying ease.

"Try again!" Mark called desperately.

"Another Thunder!"

Charizard began to take off from the ground, but another bolt of lightning struck him, this time sending him crashing straight back into the ground so he landed awkwardly on his side. He managed to rise anyway and tried to fly up, but he was hurt and his flight was awkward and sluggish; without an order, the Manectric roared towards the sky again. Yet another jolt of electricity passed from the clouds into Charizard's body, and he fell limply to the ground, unconscious.

Mark bit his lip. "I'm sorry, Charizard," he muttered as he took out his Pokéball to recall him. "Sandslash, do it! Earthquake!"

"Manectric, Swift!"

As Sandslash finished forming, Manectric fired a flurry of glowing stars from its mouth that converged on Sandslash, bombarding him before he'd had the chance to curl into a ball for defense. He tried to shield his head with his paws until it was over and was then quick to leap into the air and smash his paws into the ground to produce an Earthquake; being a Ground-type and considerably better at the attack than Charizard, the ripples in the ground this time looked considerably more powerful, and as they passed under Manectric's feet, it shuddered violently, emitting a shower of sparks before it stumbled and collapsed.

Michael looked unsurprised. "Manectric, return," he said, recalling the fallen Pokémon. "Blastoise, go!"

"Earthquake!" Mark ordered quickly.

"Hydro Pump!"

As the tortoise Pokémon emerged, Sandslash took another leap, but the Blastoise was quicker than Mark anticipated; it had already pointed its cannon straight towards Sandslash, and a torrent of water blasted out from it. The pangolin, however, managed somehow to react and get himself out of the way, or perhaps it was just poorly aimed in exchange for being so fast; in any case, the jet of water passed just by Sandslash's side, and he smashed into the ground, producing another Earthquake. Blastoise grunted as the tremor passed underneath it, but didn't seem to hurt it that much.

"Try again! Hydro Pump!"

"Another Earthquake!"

Mark wasn't very hopeful on Sandslash's behalf; the Blastoise took aim at him, but then actually waited a moment for the pangolin to jump and fired its cannon the moment he landed. The blast of water sent Sandslash flying into the wall on Mark's end of the arena before the Earthquake ripples reached Blastoise and threw off its aim. It roared in pain this time, but remained on its feet.

Mark looked down at where Sandslash was lying in a heap below him in the mud and was about to take out his ball to recall him when he stirred and suddenly took one more strained leap to pull off a final Earthquake. It was clumsy and looked weakish, but the Blastoise was very nearly knocked off its feet simply because it wasn't prepared for it. It growled and sent one more quick blast of water from one cannon straight at the prone form of Sandslash, who merely braced himself for the attack and let it knock him unconscious.

With a guilty sigh, Mark recalled him, wishing he'd had the sense to do it before he was hit by the final attack. He took a moment to take a deep breath and think about the situation so far. He had two Pokémon left. Michael had three. Unless Jolteon or Scyther managed to take down two Pokémon and turn the tables, Michael was winning.

And all things considered, really, how likely was that? Neither of them was the best at countering their weaknesses. He might really have lost the battle at the first round, when Lucario had managed to take Dragonite down, and that thought depressed him. At least he'd tried, he thought dully, but the thought felt hollow and fake.

"Jolteon, go," he said and threw Jolteon's ball into the arena. "Thunderb..." he began before he remembered it was still raining. "No, Thunder! Quick!"

"Blastoise, Earthquake!"

More Earthquakes. Somehow he was getting really sick of that move by now.

Jolteon readied himself, crouching down as he manipulated the electrons in his opponent, and a lightning bolt struck the tortoise where it stood. This time it roared in real pain, something about it oddly satisfying.

He hoped it would go down immediately, but it didn't (how could that thing survive a Thunder _and_ two Earthquakes?), and it stomped its foot on the ground, producing yet another series of spreading ripples in the ground.

Mark clenched his fists, praying that their training would pay off: they'd practiced Earthquake-dodging with May for a whole day at one point. Jolteon stood tense, waiting for the Earthquake waves to reach him, and then jumped at just the right moment – Mark's heart thumped – he landed neatly between two ripples and managed to jump again before the next had reached him – he landed again –

He was a split second too late for the next jump; he yelped as electric sparks scattered out from his body, lost his footing on the wet ground and took the full force of the rest of the attack. He stood up, trembling, and tried to shake the water and mud from his fur.

"Blastoise, get a Hydro Pump in!"

"One more Thunder! Please!" Mark pleaded. He couldn't lose with a type advantage. Not here. Not now. Somehow his mind conjured up an image of Mrs. Grodski's condescending I-told-you-so smile.

The tortoise was already aiming its cannon, and while concentrating on the attack, Jolteon couldn't hope to try to dodge at the same time. Mark was sure he saw a hint of fear shining in his eyes on the Pokémon close-up screen.

The Blastoise fired its Hydro Pump (why was it so _fast_?) and Jolteon was blasted straight into the wall just as lightning struck the Blastoise. It bellowed in pain, collapsing onto all fours; its legs trembled, and then it surrendered to its own weight, knocked out.

The audience cheered. Mark looked down at Jolteon; he was lying in a muddy pool of water, shivering, probably barely conscious. He watched Michael recall his Blastoise, seeming to eye Jolteon with concern as he took out his next Pokéball.

"Donphan, go!"

Mark saw Jolteon look weakly up and try to rise.

He'd pretty much lost the battle already. There was no reason to make Jolteon suffer more for the small possibility of getting one weak attack in.

"Jolteon, return," he muttered as he watched the elephant Pokémon form on the other side. The rain was subsiding, leaving the arena covered with small, dirty puddles.

He took out Scyther's ball and looked at it, wondering for a moment if he should just surrender and save him the need of getting hurt too. But Scyther never shied away from battles; he'd probably want to fight to the last. He had to try to go out with something of a bang. Perhaps he'd manage to beat Donphan and even put something of a dent in Michael's last Pokémon.

"Go, Scyther!"

"Donphan, Rollout!"

"No!" Mark blurted out. "Scyther, Double Team!"

Scyther split himself into three as the Donphan curled itself into a ball and rolled towards him; it somehow managed to jump and went straight through a copy, dissolving it before landing harshly on the ground on the other side and uncurling.

"Scyther, use a Swords Da..."

Mark trailed off as he realized Scyther didn't look like he was listening to him; both of the remaining copies were in fact staring straight at Michael, and Michael was staring straight back, eyes wide, his knuckles white as they gripped the railing.

Scyther wasn't just staring, Mark realized as he glanced at the Pokémon close-up screen. He was staring _murderously_, the way Mark only remembered him staring at Scizor.

And then it suddenly clicked in his head where he had seen Michael before – in Ruxido, unconscious and bleeding, for those few seconds before the paramedics had teleported away with him – Nightmare's trainer, the boy Scyther had tried to kill. And then the Scizor earlier – that meant –

Everything swirled around in Mark's head. For a moment he felt dizzy and had to grab the railing too to keep his balance. He noticed somewhere in the back of his mind that the audience had gone dead silent. Donphan stood there, looking up at its trainer with concern. Michael was frozen, his lips pressed together, his face pale.

Both Scyther roared and leapt up without warning, performing a quick series of spinning slashes on the air before charging into Donphan.

"Aerial Ace!" Mark had the sense to shout to make the move legal before Scyther slashed at his opponent. Donphan cried out in pain, looked quickly up at its trainer and then curled up again to use its only available move. The two Scyther copies were already splitting themselves into a total of six and moving in for another Aerial Ace.

Mark looked quickly up at the trainer close-up of Michael. He was no longer even watching; he stood a bit hunched over, looking down, still supporting himself against the railing. He heard Donphan whimper as it was struck again by an illusory army of roaring Scyther; all five of them (it must have managed to hit and dissolve one copy, he realized dimly) stepped back for another Swords Dance. The Donphan called worriedly out to its trainer. Mark knew he should be telling Scyther to stop, but something stopped him; a thousand different excuses swam around in his head.

Michael looked up when he heard his Pokémon calling for him; the Scyther copies were Swords Dancing again. "Donphan," he called, his voice weak, "use a... Rock Sl..."

Scyther moved in to strike with his duplicates. In a flash of five raised scythes, he pulled off one more Aerial Ace before moving away. The Donphan lay bleeding in the middle, unconscious.

Michael swallowed, looking down again. "I'm sorry," he said and took out a Pokéball, recalling his Pokémon blindly. There were a few moments of dead silence as Michael took deep, steadying breaths. Mark was beginning to feel sick; his hand fiddled with Scyther's Pokéball. He knew he should recall him and see if Michael was okay.

But the referees hadn't called for a suspension of the match – presumably they only did that if the trainer was clearly physically ill. Recalling him would mean surrendering.

And he could _win_. Only minutes ago he'd been convinced the match was lost already, but now it was down to one on one, with Scyther healthy, Double Teamed and powered up; he had a real, good chance of winning this battle now, proceeding to the second knockout round.

Wasn't Michael the trainer who had caught Nightmare and evolved her without asking, sentencing her to a life as a creature her species despised? Didn't he deserve it, really?

Mark let go of the Pokéball, and it struck him for a moment that what was making him nauseous was his own feelings. Then that thought was gone.

Michael looked up again, though not down at the arena. "All right," he said, "Flareon, go!"

He threw his final ball, releasing the Fire Pokémon. Yet again, Michael had the type advantage.

Mark's apparently five Scyther growled simultaneously at the Flareon and then, again, moved without a command.

Michael shuddered on his trainer stand. "Flareon, um..." He hesitated, looking away as his Pokémon glanced up at him in confusion only to be struck down by an Aerial Ace; it screamed, the sound high-pitched and piercing. "Heat Wave."

The Flareon stood up, opened its mouth and breathed out an invisible wave of heat that managed to strike three Scyther; two melted away, but the last was the real one, who cried out in pain as the scorching heat charred the front of his exoskeleton and threw him back. He doubled over to catch his breath, the final two copies disappearing now that his concentration had faltered.

"Aerial Ace!" Mark called, his voice sounding strange; it occurred dimly to him that he hadn't given an order since Scyther's first strike at Donphan. Scyther was already back up and rushing towards Flareon again, but the other Pokémon had its back turned, trying to make eye contact with its trainer; Michael was burying his face in his hands, shaking his head. "Endure," he said, but he was too late. With a roar of fury, Scyther delivered a final blow to the unwary Flareon, who let out a miserable cry before it collapsed, blood staining its yellow neck collar.

There was no cheering from the audience this time; there were just shouts and puzzled chatter. Scyther stood over the Flareon's limp form and looked slowly towards Michael, who had now simply turned around, one hand still holding tightly on to the railing. Mark saw the referees raise a red flag on Michael's side that the trainer couldn't see; he wasn't sure if the boy was even aware his Pokémon was down. The status screen updated to strike Flareon out and declare Mark the winner, and Mark considered that his cue to take out Scyther's Pokéball and recall the mantis. He felt himself shiver as he looked over at Michael and somehow felt like he had just committed a great crime.

He didn't even hear the announcer call the win, though he knew it must have been done at some point. He exited the trainer stand, still shaken, walked over to the Pokémon Center, handed the Pokéballs to Nurse Joy and crumbled into a couch to wait. Only moments later, he saw Michael enter and froze momentarily, but the other trainer just walked up to the counter without noticing him. He looked okay, at the very least – still pale and trembling a bit, but he seemed to be getting better. That calmed Mark down a little. He didn't take his eyes off Michael as the boy walked over to another couch to wait.

It wasn't long before Mark's Pokémon were fully healed; he walked back over to the counter and picked up the Pokéballs, still keeping an eye on Michael to see if he was watching. He wasn't; in fact, he had been staring blankly into space since getting there.

Mark didn't feel relatively normal again until he was back out of the Pokémon Center.

"There you are," said a voice behind him; he jumped before he turned around and realized it was just May. "Congratulations," she said, not sounding like she really meant it. Oh, yeah, he thought absent-mindedly; he would get to proceed to the next knockout round. That fact had gotten lost somewhere.

When Mark didn't answer, May went on. "You didn't really deserve to win that," she said. "He'd have creamed you if he weren't Scyther-phobic or whatever. God knows why he entered the League where there could be Scyther wherever, or why he has a Scizor himself, but he was better than you."

Mark nodded numbly.

"The thing is that you got too caught up with your weakness counters," she continued when he still said nothing. "You started off okay, but then you were just trying to use a bunch of super-effective attacks, with no regard for strategy, and since the others had super-effective moves too but were usually better equipped to pull them off, you were bound to lose. You'd have needed some real strategy to stand a chance to win square. Jolteon made a good try to dodge that Earthquake, though, by the way; tell him for me. Earthquake is really hard to avoid completely if you can't fly."

She paused for a moment. "There's also how you only have six Pokémon, so you were completely predictable. He probably figured you'd start with Dragonite, and from there it was just putting together a team with exactly one counter for each of your Pokémon. It would've been better if you had a bigger team."

"Yeah," Mark said.

She looked at him. "What's with you?"

He shook his head. "I just feel like I shouldn't have won that, I guess."

May shrugged. "Well, if it makes you feel better, getting nervous is just another weakness, really. If you look at it that way, it's just as legitimate a reason to lose a battle as having a poor type balance in your team or using too many offensive moves. And it's not your fault if he has a problem with Scyther, so it's not like you were cheating."

Mark didn't really have an answer to that.

"Oh, did you ever figure out where you thought you'd seen him before?"

"No," said Mark, and they walked into their trainer lodge in silence.

* * *

Michael sighed and dropped his Pokéballs on the floor of his bedroom, and the six Pokémon emerged in blinding white light, already squabbling anxiously.

"...is he okay? He was so strange..."

"...we were ahead, weren't we...?"

"...how did it go? Did we win...?"

"We didn't," Michael said, his quiet voice lost among the Pokémon's cries at first; they quieted down one by one as they realized he had said something.

"We lost," he repeated in the newfound silence. "I'm sorry I let you down."

Their voices rose up again all at once.

"...how could we lose? We were ahead, I saw it..."

"...I think there was something wrong with Michael, he was all pale and didn't order any attacks..."

Michael shook his head. "Please," he said, and they fell silent once more, now all looking at him with concern. "Please," he said again. "I'm sorry. I... just got a little dizzy there at the end. A headache. I'm okay now."

He glanced at Scizor; she looked puzzled, just like the rest of them. Skeptical. It sounded like the excuse that it was.

But how could he explain it to them without sounding like he was going off his rocker? He'd caught Scizor, and minutes later a murderous Scyther had struck the Pokémon Center he was in. He'd gone off to other regions for a couple of years, but only weeks after returning to take on the Ouen League, a Scyther had tried to kill Scizor at the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament. And then he'd been attacked by Sneasel – of course it was a band of Sneasel, the paramedics had seen them with their own eyes – and yet his mind kept conjuring up a hazy memory of being knocked down by something huge and green, a reptilian face, terrifying eyes with empty, slitlike pupils. And now those same eyes, many pairs of them staring up at him from a battle arena; that shrill battle cry, the shining blades ready to hurt and kill. It had been too much.

Especially because somehow, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get rid of the paranoid, absurd notion that it was all the same Scyther.

_Ridiculous,_ he'd told himself repeatedly. _All Scyther look the same._ But they didn't; he was sure Scizor had looked different when she was a Scyther, and he'd seen an occasional Scyther in the other regions, and he'd seen pictures of Scyther; they made him shudder, but never like that. He had tried to tell himself that he had never seen Scizor very well as a Scyther, since he'd evolved her immediately – the thought made him wince now – and maybe there were regional differences between Scyther, or he was responding to the expression of bloodlust that he'd only seen those three times before – no, _two_ times, he insisted to himself; it had been Sneasel that had attacked him. His brain had made up the Scyther. There had never been a Scyther.

Michael sighed and looked at his waiting Pokémon. He couldn't tell them he thought he was being stalked by a murderous Scyther. It sounded stupid even to himself.

"It was just nerves, I guess," he said. "Having gotten that far and all."

"We'll have better luck next time," said Flareon, rubbing reassuringly against his leg, but as she said it, Michael realized he wasn't sure he wanted there to be a next time.

"Yeah," he said anyway as the Pokémon mumbled in agreement. "I hope so."

Deep down, he had already decided to quit training for good.


	51. Friendly Competition

**The Ouen League – Chapter 50: Friendly Competition**

_August 20th, 10:00_  
_MAY VICTORIA WALLACE vs. MARK GREENLET_

"Huh," May said. "That's lame."

Mark nodded slowly. In storybooks, the two friends who had journeyed together always faced one another in the finals of the League. To be about to battle May already just felt off and anticlimactic, especially with the knowledge that one of them would then inevitably spend the rest of the duration of the League just sitting around and watching.

He tried not to think too much about the fact that would in all likelihood be him. He had resolved to himself that in his next battle he would show that he really belonged there, as a way of making up for his poor performance and qualification by sheer luck in the battle against Michael Willows. Much of the past couple of days had been spent trying to gather all his confidence and determination for the next battle; he couldn't now simply throw up his arms in defeat.

"Well, I guess if we ever had to train separately, it's now," May said to break the silence. "So…"

"Yeah," Mark replied and nodded. He waved goodbye as she left and then made his way out of the small crowd to send out Charizard.

* * *

"We're battling _May_?" asked Letaligon when Mark had broken the news to the team.

"Looks like it, yeah."

"We'll never win," she said bluntly.

"Well," Dragonite pointed out with a shrug, "I did beat Tyranitar that one time, so who knows?"

"I think," said Sandslash slowly, "that if we are to beat her, we need to take advantage of everything we have that she doesn't."

"Such as what?" Letaligon looked almost offended by the suggestion; Mark found it momentarily amusing.

"Your independence," he suggested after a moment, catching on. "You guys have always done a lot of the battling without me calling the shots. May never does that. We could turn that to our advantage somehow."

Sandslash nodded. "What it boils down to is that you trust us to make good decisions in battle, while May would never trust her Pokémon to know better than she does. We could use the time that they use to wait for her order to attack on our own, and that could also speed up the battle to make it harder for her to keep up."

"Trust doesn't win battles," said Letaligon contemptuously. "Strategy does."

"Well, then we'll put together a strategy that exploits it," Mark responded, irritated that she seemed to insist on taking the pessimistic approach. "See if we can't figure out a way to make it work. She's not impossible to beat."

"It's not as simple as that," Scyther said. "You'd have to order all the moves first."

Mark jumped at hearing him speak. Scyther hadn't really spoken at all since after the battle with Michael, when Mark had sent him out in his room without really knowing what he wanted to say. Scyther had curtly pointed out that he'd done absolutely nothing wrong and that he couldn't help it if his presence had upset the other boy, and then he'd recalled himself before Mark had had the chance to answer. He wasn't sure he would have had one.

"Scyther is right," Dragonite said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "We can only improvise within the boundaries you've already set."

"Well, what if I try to be quick to order four different moves, so you'll have more choices?"

"That's a stupid idea," said Letaligon. "If we waste four moves on something we have a type advantage against, there'll be nothing left when she sends out something that's good against us."

Mark nodded reluctantly, furrowing his brow. "What if I order one or two moves against the Pokémon you're sent out against and save the others for soon after the next one is sent out?" He paused. "And if it looks bad against the first, I can add the third or even fourth move, since if you don't beat the one you're sent out against, you won't need them later anyway."

"I think it would be better to start with who should open the battle than thinking up what we're going to do when it's begun," Scyther said, but hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to say it. "If memory serves me, May has at least two fairly solid counters against every one of us. There is no way to ensure we will not open at a disadvantage."

Mark thought quickly over it in his head – Scyther was right. His heart sank for a moment, but he forcibly pulled it up again. "Well, who is she going to open with? We need to try to think like her."

Everyone looked at Letaligon. She straightened her neck in an almost flattered manner, pausing for a moment before she answered. "If _I_ were her, I'd start with Tyranitar. He uses Rock and Ground attacks, and that gives him an advantage over all of us except Sandslash."

"Well, the obvious solution to that is to start with Sandslash," Mark said, looking over at the pangolin.

Sandslash glanced hesitantly around. "Doesn't Tyranitar know quite a few elemental moves that could be strong against Ground Pokémon, though?"

"She would make sure of that," Letaligon asserted confidently.

Mark shrugged. "Do you have any other ideas? You still have the best chance against Tyranitar out of all of you."

In the end Sandslash agreed to open the battle, they discussed some possible outcomes and strategies, and Mark returned to the trainer lodge for lunch. He was surprised to find that May wasn't there yet; she was usually more punctual than he was, and it was already five minutes past the time they usually met. He waited for her for fifteen more minutes anyway, but was about to give up when she finally came through the door, not looking to be in a hurry; in fact, she seemed almost disappointed when she saw him.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked as she came over to the table with her choice from the buffet. "I thought you'd be done eating by now."

"I was waiting for you," he said blankly.

May gave him a pained look. "Look, Mark, I want to think of you as an opponent when I battle you. Not the guy I hang out and eat lunch with. Okay? I'll eat with you now, but just get dinner by yourself. And breakfast, too, tomorrow."

Mark just nodded. They ate in relative silence – he couldn't exactly run his proposed strategies by her now, and without her starting any conversation or that to fall back on, he couldn't think of much to talk about – and as May finished eating, she stood up immediately without waiting for him to finish. "See you day after tomorrow," she said. "I won't hold back just because I know you. Give it your best shot." She flashed him a quick smile before she turned around, blue ponytails swishing behind her, and disappeared out the door. Mark was left to finish his own food, feeling oddly lonely.

* * *

Time passed at a snail's pace for what remained of that day and the next. For all Mark could tell, May had vanished off the face of the earth; he thought he maybe caught a glimpse of her outside once or twice, but at mealtimes he ate alone, and in the evenings she either came in before or after him. Despite May's apparent opinion that this was helpful to battle strategies, Mark found it kind of distracting. Apparently, when _his_ brain had difficulty thinking of May as the girl he hung out and ate lunch with, it began to think of her as a force of evil instead: the thought of losing somehow became unthinkable, even as at the same time he began to doubt every strategy they came up with on the crazy assumption that May simply had to have thought of it too and probably sat somewhere at that very moment with her own Pokémon figuring out a counter-strategy. Mark had a brief bout of being absolutely certain that May knew he was going to start with Sandslash and would probably open with Floatzel, and therefore he should start with Jolteon, except May would predict that too and start with Flygon, and then he probably ought to start with Charizard, who would be beaten by Floatzel again. The eventual conclusion was that he might as well stick with Sandslash.

As Mark retreated to his room after their final training session on the evening of the nineteenth, he rubbed his eyes and spent a few minutes just sitting on his bed and staring blankly at the door until one of the Pokéballs on his belt shook and opened, releasing Scyther in a flash of white light. Mark looking at him, questioningly.

"Mark," Scyther said, "I don't think you will win tomorrow."

Mark said nothing.

"You were losing your last battle for a reason. We're not strong enough, none of us. That you faced Nightmare's trainer in the previous battle, and that he recognized me, was a fortunate accident."

"We have strategies," Mark replied. "You'll improvise quicker than she can respond."

Scyther sighed. "That's not a solution to everything. Who says whatever we improvise will be any good? It worked for me against Nightmare's trainer because he and his Pokémon were distracted in the meanwhile. Beating May? It'll be slightly better than if we didn't do it, but it will not win the battle."

"It could," Mark just said. He didn't want to give up, not here, not now, not at the urging of Scyther, who had gotten him this far in the first place. "Why are you telling me this? How do you think it's going to help to convince me that I'll lose?"

Scyther looked at him for a moment with a dark expression. "I know you think you need to make up for the lucky win by winning for real this time. But that's not how it works. Even if you did beat May, it would not change anything about the previous victory. Win or lose – probably lose – you still wouldn't have gotten this far if he hadn't been Nightmare's trainer or if I hadn't tried to kill him that time. You have already been defeated. The fact your opponent failed to seal his victory by a last-minute weakness does not mean you weren't."

Mark tried to make sense of that cryptic stance, and it suddenly dawned on him why Scyther seemed to care so much. "This is about you, isn't it?" he said. "Your defeat, when Nightmare failed to kill you. This is your Scyther ethics again – if you're defeated you must die, and if your opponent doesn't do it it's up to you to correct it. You think you can redeem yourself somehow if you get it right this time – you think to make up for an unfair victory, we need to _lose_."

Scyther winced, but said nothing.

"Well, I don't believe in that," Mark said, feeling anger begin to seep into his voice. "I think it's stupid how you think one mistake is the end of the world and you somehow have to suffer for it. If you get a second chance at something, you should be grateful for it and use it to show you deserve it, not try to destroy it in order to make yourself miserable again. And if you're part of my Pokémon team, you should go along with our plan to _win_ the next battle instead of trying to ruin it for everyone. Deal with your own issues and stop pushing them on us."

Scyther looked at the floor and didn't reply.

"And, well, maybe we will lose, but it won't be because we gave up and decided we didn't deserve to win. If you're not willing to do your best in this battle for the sake of the team, you don't belong on it."

Mark took a breath and thought back over what he'd just said. He hadn't meant to suggest he was somehow 'firing' Scyther from the team, but he couldn't imagine trying to take it back would really help; it would retain all the potential for hurt but take away the actual edge. He looked at the Pokémon, waiting for an answer. Scyther didn't say anything.

"I mean, it's not that we don't all want you on the team," he tried, "but if you're hurting _our_ chances at achieving our goals, and it's just for the sake of punishing yourself, we'll all suffer for your beliefs. That's not fair, is it?" He paused. "And really, why do you want to punish yourself so much in accordance with your Scyther ethics? When was the last time the Scyther swarm did you any good? Are you really _still_ obsessed with redeeming yourself? Doesn't that rule demand you kill yourself if you want to be redeemed, anyway?"

He immediately regretted saying the last bit and worried briefly that Scyther would attempt something right then and there, but the mantis didn't move.

"No," Scyther finally said, "no, you're right. Losing the battle won't fix anything." And he recalled himself into his ball without saying anything else.

Mark didn't know if that meant he had actually agreed to do his best in the battle or not, but he had a feeling it wouldn't help to try to force him to continue the conversation, and he was already a bit late turning in his Pokémon for the pre-battle examination anyway. He stood up to walk over to the office building and decided he'd try to talk to him again in the morning.

* * *

He woke up at around the right time, much to his relief. He'd been dreaming something about arriving at the battle arena only to find that May had turned into a blue Letaligon and that was why she hadn't wanted to see him in the past couple of days.

Mark blinked sleepily on his bed as he remembered it, yawned, and after a few seconds stood up to get dressed and brush his teeth. A sea of vague strategies floated around in his head, obscuring everything else. He headed off to the League offices after a quick breakfast (there was still no sign of May, even though he'd have thought she would have to get up at the same time as him now) and was being taken to the battle arena by one of the receptionists when he suddenly realized he had not yet talked to Scyther.

He looked nervously at the lady walking by his side. He hadn't seen her before; she was probably in her forties and had brown hair tied back in a bun, black, rectangular glasses, a large, pointed nose and a stern expression that reminded him uncomfortably of Mrs. Grodski now that he was debating if he'd dare to ask her if it was okay to stop and talk to his Pokémon. He told himself he really ought to, but his lips refused to move. What if she did say yes? She would insist on listening to the conversation, and what would she think if he spent it trying to convince his Scyther that they didn't _deserve_ to lose after the previous battle and he still shouldn't kill himself? He insisted to himself that he should do it anyway, but then they were almost there, and he didn't really have the time to ask, and then he was being ushered through the door to the trainer stand. It closed behind him with an ominous fate-sealing sort of click.

Mark sighed, contemplating his options as he looked at the other door at the top of the staircase. He supposed he could try to send Scyther out in this cramped space and talk to him, but this opportunity for unseen pre-battle interaction with one's Pokémon couldn't simply have been overlooked by the League; they had to have cameras or Pokéball-suppressors or something. He looked nervously around and tried, very carefully, to maximize one of the Pokéballs at his belt in a careless manner; the button did nothing. The latter, then.

Which meant he was forced to go into battle and simply hope that Scyther had gotten over it and decided not to try to sabotage it.

He winced and walked up the stairs to step through the door onto the trainer stand. He looked over the stadium, out of habit, really; it looked just the same as it had before his previous battle. The opposite trainer stand was still empty, and he waited, leaning against the railing, looking over the audience – he had almost begun to look for May before he remembered she wouldn't be watching him this time. His stomach fluttered: somehow, the fact of just who he was about to battle had never seemed fully real until now.

He jerked his head back to the other trainer stand when the spectators began to cheer: May was stepping through the door. She took in the sight of the stadium with a confident, sweeping glance and then looked directly towards Mark; his stomach fluttered uncomfortably again. She grinned, grabbing a Pokéball off her necklace. Mark quickly took out Sandslash's ball and fiddled nervously with the button. Was it _really_ best to start with him? What if May didn't start with Tyranitar at all? Did she recognize his Pokéballs, maybe? He looked over at her – he couldn't tell her balls apart at all. Maybe he should have tried to notice that at some point.

He peered at May on the status screen. She didn't appear to be staring at what Pokéball he was holding – at the moment she was looking over the audience – and at the very least she seemed quite certain beforehand of what she was going to lead with even if she did know which ball he'd taken out. He was probably being paranoid, anyway – how would she tell his identical Pokéballs apart? And the status screen image didn't show the waist – it would be hard to tell from the placement which ball was being picked, whether from there or by trying to see it directly.

May looked so casual and confident. It struck him that even if she could tell what Pokéball he'd picked, she simply wouldn't _need_ to resort to something like that.

_I'm going to lose,_ some part of his brain thought frantically. _I have no idea what I'm doing. She's going to wipe the floor with me._

A sinking feeling of hopelessness washed over him, but he'd had plenty of practice dealing with that feeling in the past two days; he pushed it firmly away, remembering his whole speech to Scyther the previous night. They had strategies. They had a chance. His Pokémon were independent and quick-thinking. They could do it.

And really, they _had_ to win. Scyther had managed to make the prospect of losing exponentially worse. It wasn't just about justifying his presence at this stage of the League anymore; it seemed like a matter of principle, as if losing would mean Scyther was right.

"Trainers, ready Pokéballs."

Mark jerked his head up. On the status screen, May gave a confident smirk and maximized the Pokéball in her hand. Mark hurriedly maximized his own.

"Ready, set, throw!"

The protective force field shimmered out of existence and Mark tossed Sandslash's ball into the arena. He watched May's ball carefully as it flew in an arc through the air and released a white shape – was it Tyranitar? – no, it was smaller – it was tiny?

_Mutark,_ Mark realized just before the light began to fade from the kitten Pokémon along with a weird object that had materialized beside her on the arena. He glanced at the status screen close-up for a better look: it looked like a spiky, metallic ball. He looked quizzically at May; surely that wasn't supposed to be there?

The girl, however, did not look surprised. She gave no immediate command, instead just looking down to watch her Pokémon. The black, catlike creature walked up to the ball and batted curiously at it, with predictable results: she let out a mewling cry of pain as drops of blood dripped from her paw. Mark looked at May in horror; she was smirking now, and it suddenly dawned on him just what she was doing.

Mutark licked miserably at her wound and then stiffened and stretched, growing to a larger, more vicious form in a matter of moments. Mark looked quickly over at Sandslash, panicking: May had been complaining that it was hard to use Mutark effectively when she didn't become powerful until after taking several hits, but it looked like she had figured out the solution to that problem since then.

"Sandslash, Earthquake!" he blurted out.

Sandslash leapt into the air just as Mutark pricked her tail on her Sticky Barb, with unnerving deliberation this time. As the pangolin landed and created ripples of Earthquake waves, she hissed and trembled, her tail lashing around in the air; the item was now stuck to the wound, and when she tried to lick the blood around it, it pricked her muzzle and forehead as well. Mutark mrowled in pain again while Sandslash took a leap for another Earthquake, and as the pressure waves reached her, she had already grown again: she was now around three times Sandslash's size, with formidable four-inch fangs jutting from her upper jaw, and visibly less bothered by the Earthquake than she had been before.

"Earthquake again!" Mark called.

"Mutark, Sucker Punch!" May ordered.

Sandslash was in mid-leap when Mutark bounded towards him at breakneck speed, red eyes glowing, and smacked a paw into him. He was thrown backwards in an arc, spinning, but managed to execute the attack as he came down anyway, if a bit clumsily; Earthquake ripples spread across the ground, passing under Mutark's feet and making her shudder before she took a moment to lick the blood that was leaking off her muzzle, stiffened and grew yet again. By now she was the size of a small horse and Mark doubted she would grow a lot more even if Sandslash did inflict physical wounds.

"Use Ice Fang," May commanded.

"X-Scissor!" Mark countered quickly.

Icicles formed around Mutark's grossly engorged fangs as she leapt towards Sandslash with a terrifying roar. He held his claws crossed in a defensive stance as they glowed faintly green. The giant cat Pokémon knocked him down and he managed to slash at her belly before she sank her long fangs into his body, frost forming around the entry wounds. Sandslash squeaked unnervingly, but slashed with still-glowing claws at her eyes, causing her to hiss and momentarily nearly release him. He struggled to get away, but she caught him in time and bit powerfully down again until his frost-covered body went limp, the audience shouting and cheering wildly as the referees waved the match's first red flag.

Mark held forward Sandslash's Pokéball to recall him, his heart hammering in his chest. The battle wasn't starting off well, and he strongly suspected that was his fault, really: he should have given his first command sooner and used a bit more variety or strategy. As much as they'd been planning to be clever, when it came to it he had just kept ordering the same old brute force offensive moves. He had to try to shake off that mental state.

He looked down at the arena; Mutark was pacing restlessly around, growling. She hadn't grown any more, even though there was still blood dripping from the slashes on her chest: he presumed that meant she was indeed in her strongest form right now. On the one hand, that meant she was very powerful already, not that that hadn't been clear from how easily she'd taken Sandslash down; on the other hand, it meant there was no disadvantage to sending out Scyther. Disregarding, of course, that Scyther might refuse to fight, but if so, he would be no more likely to do so now than if he had to use him later in the battle.

"Scyther, go! Double Team and then hit her with X-Scissor!"

"Mutark, Taunt and then Thunder Fang!"

Ironically, Mark thought, May might just have actually helped him by ordering that Taunt. The moment Scyther had finished materializing on the arena, Mutark growled something at him, and he responded with an angry hiss; he skipped the Double Team command entirely, instead zooming towards Mutark with his scythes raised and glowing. The mantis slashed twice across the Dark-type's back before she grabbed him in her jaws, her fangs crackling with electricity as they pierced through his exoskeleton. He roared in pain, slashing madly at her side as his body convulsed.

"Keep that up, Scyther!" Mark called, not sure there was anything else he could do; Scyther would ignore any command to stop directly attacking her, and X-Scissor was the best he could do in that department. The bug Pokémon was all too happy to oblige and managed with a well-aimed hit to cut so deep into Mutark's leg that she lost her balance and collapsed, releasing him completely. Scyther was quick to take advantage of this, despite the bluish-black blood oozing from his deep wounds; he leapt on top of her and hacked madly into her body until she stopped struggling to get up.

May recalled Mutark silently, pausing for a moment after reattaching the ball to her necklace. Finally, she picked one of her other balls, maximized it and threw it into the arena. "Skarmory, go!" she called. "Swords Dance!"

The metallic vulture burst out of the Pokéball in a flash of white, announcing his presence with a metallic screech before he spread his wings wide and began to spin rapidly around in the air to power himself up. Scyther, with a mad roar of blind rage, darted straight towards him without waiting for an order.

"Scyther, Brick Break!" Mark called. Under the spell of Taunt, there wasn't a lot Scyther could do against a Skarmory, really: the best he could hope for was a type-neutral attack, not that Mark was sure he would be better off without the Taunt, with Scyther fully in control of his actions. He reached the bird, who was just finishing his Swords Dance, and gave him a punch with the edge of his scythe, but Skarmory merely recoiled slightly and screeched indignantly at the bug, seeming more irritated than hurt.

"Brave Bird!" May ordered, and just as Scyther was pressing back towards Skarmory, the bird faced him head-on. Skarmory flung himself straight into Scyther's body, ignoring the mantis's frantic strikes at his wings, and then simply used his weight to send both of them crashing towards the ground at a great speed. Scyther landed crushed under May's Pokémon and gave a piercing cry of pain before Skarmory rose dizzily back to his feet and fluttered unsteadily into the air.

"Skarmory, Roost!"

The metallic Pokémon landed gratefully on the ground a short distance away and settled down, folding his wings and closing his eyes to rest.

"Come on, Scyther," Mark muttered, but the mantis was still lying sprawled on his back, bleeding and unmoving. The referees waved a red flag: he was officially out, and the audience cheered once more.

With a sigh, Mark took out Scyther's ball and recalled him. Some part of him was glad in a twisted way that Scyther had fainted now, before the effects of the Taunt had worn off and made him possibly refuse to fight. On the other hand, if the battle kept going like this, May would completely cream him.

His obvious choices now were Charizard and Jolteon; however, he'd figured the day before that May would probably have Floatzel and had intended to let Jolteon deal with her. He took a deep breath as he grabbed Charizard's ball. Strategy. Let the Pokémon use their independence. Order moves quickly to let them make their own judgements later.

"Skarmory, Swords Dance," May ordered. Her Pokémon had finished resting and now began to spin around in another empowering dance, looking no worse for wear than at the very beginning of the battle.

"Charizard, Flamethrower!" Mark yelled as he hurled the ball forward, feeling stupid for spending so much time thinking that he'd given her the chance to get an extra power-up move in. As Charizard began to form, Skarmory finished his dance, and May gave another command:

"Skarmory, use a Rock Slide!"

"What?" Mark blurted out in a panic. Skarmory weren't supposed to know Rock attacks! How did everything have Rock attacks when he had Charizard out? "Charizard, quick! Try to dodge it!"

The dragon finished materializing and apparently decided, probably wisely, that it would be difficult to try to both attack and dodge at the same time: he hovered in the air, watching Skarmory carefully as the Steel Pokémon screeched and raised several large boulders out of the ground that hurled themselves at Charizard. He managed to flick himself nimbly out of the way of the first couple, but then one struck him in the tail, throwing off his balance, and three or four others crashed into him while he was trying to regain it, throwing him towards the ground.

"Just try to Flamethrower him!" Mark called desperately as Charizard flew weakly back up, growling, and opened his mouth to fire a bright cone of fire towards Skarmory, who let out a high-pitched cry as it enveloped him.

"Another Rock Slide!"

His flight had faltered as his feathers had melted together, but Skarmory sent another barrage of rocks flying at Charizard. Again, he managed to dodge a few of them, but others hit, one tearing his wing fabric and making him cringe with pain. He retaliated on his own accord with another Flamethrower, which scorched Skarmory and bent one of his wings slightly, but still did not bring him down.

"Rock Slide again," May ordered, and this time Charizard didn't have the energy to dodge: stunned, Mark watched him crash to the ground, buried under several boulders, and fail to move.

This couldn't be happening. He was three Pokémon down after only beating one of May's. He recalled Charizard, watched her calmly instruct her Skarmory to Roost again and hated himself for the tears beginning to form at the corners of his eyes; he blinked them away. He couldn't get himself slaughtered _this_ badly. Not by May. Not when it would make Scyther right.

He tore a Pokéball from his belt and threw it. "Dragonite, Fire Punch until he's down!" he shouted.

The dragon materialized and dived towards the resting Skarmory, flames circling his first. On the status screen, May frowned and looked down.

"Skarmory, Rock Slide!"

Skarmory opened his eyes just as Dragonite came zooming towards him and smashed his fist into his body, the heat allowing him to put a dent in the metal. The bird screeched in pain, flapping his wings to ascend as he prepared to attack.

"Dragonite, Thunder Wave!" Mark called, the only thought in his mind stopping May's Pokémon from executing another attack. The rocks that had buried Charizard before obediently began to rise in response to Skarmory's command, but Dragonite sent a wave of crackling electricity at the Steel Pokémon's body, and as it set in, Skarmory's muscles stiffened up and the boulders dropped back to the ground with a heavy rumble.

Dragonite used the opportunity while Skarmory was fully paralyzed to deliver another well-aimed Fire Punch, and the vulture was sent bounding backwards, unable to use his wings to soften his fall. He crashed into the wall under May's trainer stand and flopped from there to the ground, where he finally managed to regain control of his body and fluttered unsteadily up again.

May gave Dragonite a glare. "Brave Bird!"

Skarmory, straining against his paralysis, used all his remaining energy to throw himself at his opponent. Dragonite was ready to receive him with yet another Fire Punch, which nonetheless didn't manage to counteract the bird's speed: even as Skarmory screeched with pain and appeared to lose consciousness, he crashed into Dragonite's body with full power and sent both of them bounding backwards thanks to the dragon's minimal weight in practice. As they lost momentum, Dragonite managed to fly up and away from Skarmory, and the metal bird crashed into the ground, clearly fainted.

As May recalled him, Mark smiled grimly, oddly cheered by Skarmory's defeat. He looked at Dragonite, who looked quite battered after that last attack, and decided to use May's own tricks against her. "Dragonite, Roost!"

As Dragonite curled up on the ground to rest, May threw another Pokéball into the arena. "Go, Floatzel!" she shouted. "Bulk Up!"

The sea otter materialized on the arena, cackling with excitement; on a string around her neck hung the large chunk of Nevermeltice that May had excavated in Champion Cave, ready to power up her Ice attacks. She crouched down to the ground, focusing to tense her muscles as her two tails swished impatiently behind her.

Mark looked back at Dragonite, about to order an attack, but the dragon had already stood up, his bruises apparently fully healed, and fired a Thunder Wave towards his opponent. Floatzel opened her eyes too late to try to avoid it and cried out in annoyance as the paralyzing electricity set into her body. May frowned.

"Ice Punch!"

"Dragonite, Thunderpunch! Make it count!"

Floatzel tried to jump up, but her body stiffened halfway through the movement and she remained awkwardly on all fours on the ground, letting out a whine of protest as Dragonite dived towards her with electricity crackling around his paw. He socked her in the jaw with it and she was thrown aside, finally regaining her ability to move in time to land the right way up. She snarled indignantly at Dragonite as she rose, laying her paw on the ice-encased crystal around her neck momentarily before leaping up with a vengeful shriek to punch him in the gut. He cried out as he bounded backwards from the impact, a coating of frost forming on his belly; he shivered for a moment but then zoomed back towards her, undaunted, and she ran towards him with a cry of glee.

They met in the middle; Dragonite, being bigger and having longer arms, drove his electrified fist into Floatzel's belly first, and as they were knocked away from one another again she managed to hit his side with her icy paw, though with less power than she might have otherwise. Dragonite nonetheless shivered at the layer of frost it created on his skin, panting.

"Roost!" Mark called, and Dragonite curled up on the ground to heal himself.

"Floatzel, Bulk Up!" May ordered.

Floatzel let out a cackling laugh, crouching down to tense her muscles again, but then cried out in frustration as her paralysis kicked in for a second time. She growled angrily, struggling to move. Mark glanced at May on the status screen; she looked positively livid, gritting her teeth in disbelief with a fist clenched on top of the railing as she watched, and now the sight of it filled him with triumphant glee.

"Thunderpunch!" Mark shouted as Dragonite stood up, took off and dived towards the rigid Floatzel, sparks flying around his fist.

"Dodge it and get in the pool!" May hissed.

Floatzel managed to stand up and evade him, darting towards the pool on the right side of the arena. She slipped gracefully into it, instantly deflating her floating tube to sink under the water. Naturally, Dragonite followed as Floatzel circled around on her back at the bottom of the pool, grinning up at him through the distorting water.

The dragon pulled back his electrified fist and dived in after her, but he hesitated momentarily as he entered, probably shocked by the cold, and Floatzel was quicker in the water even despite being paralyzed. She whipped around behind him, touched her Nevermeltice and smashed her fist into his body, her cold paw forming a trail of ice behind it. Dragonite shivered as he floated up to the surface, a chunk of ice rapidly growing around one of his wings and tilting him awkwardly in the water.

"Again!" May commanded.

"Try to use a Fire Punch to melt it, Dragonite!" Mark called desperately, worried that Floatzel would attack him again before he could. But again, her paralysis saved him: before she could attack, her body went rigid and she sank like a rock to the bottom of the pool, her eyes widening in panic.

Mark looked uncertainly at May as the water around Dragonite's paw boiled and he brought it carefully around to his wing where it quickly began to melt the ice. Surely Floatzel, being a mammal, was in danger of drowning if she couldn't come up to breathe? May's hand moved to her necklace, fiddling with one of the Pokéballs, but she didn't take it out to recall her. There were mutterings in the audience as Mark looked back at Floatzel's image on the status screen; her eyes darted wildly from side to side as a flurry of bubbles rose from her nostrils.

Dragonite, now fully rid of the ice, dived down and picked Floatzel up in his arms, carrying her up out of the water. May, who had now taken the ball off her necklace and maximized it, quickly minimized it again. As Dragonite surfaced, Floatzel gasped for breath and coughed violently: her paralysis was beginning to fade. Immediately, ice crystals began to gather around her still-stiff paw as her face twisted into horrified disdain for her savior.

"Dragonite, look out!" Mark yelled, and the dragon looked down, electricity suddenly crackling around his paw before he used it to punch Floatzel down at the ground. She thrust her paw forward a moment too late, screeching in pain and rage as sparks flew around her falling body. She was silenced when she hit the ground, knocked out either by the impact or as a belated effect of the Thunderpunch.

"Roost," Mark called, his stomach fluttering: although he was still a bit shocked, his brain was now quite caught up with the fact that the Dragonite had now taken down two of May's Pokémon much like Skarmory had and he was about to heal himself and render much of the damage he'd taken void. "You rock, Dragonite!"

The dragon Pokémon smiled wearily as he curled up on the ground to heal himself once more. May, now pale and focused, recalled Floatzel and took out the next ball.

"Tyranitar, I choose you! Ice Punch!"

The great dinosaur roared as he emerged from the ball, to the great delight of the audience. Wisps of sand immediately began to swirl around him, stirred up by his presence on the battlefield. Mark noticed he had a yellow band with what seemed like red eyes on it tied around his head and wished he hadn't always skirted over the hold item section of the League Pokémart; it seemed May had been to it quite a bit since the last battle of hers he'd watched.

As Tyranitar made his way across the arena, Dragonite opened his eyes again, stood up and opened his mouth to release one more Thunder Wave. The paralyzing attack sparkled through the air despite the interruption of the building sandstorm and hit Tyranitar, who grunted as the electricity stiffened his muscles. He kept going nonetheless, if at a slower and jerkier pace, as Dragonite ascended into the air, his fist crackling with electricity.

May watched the dragon with irritation. "Hell with it. Just hit him with a Stone Edge."

Dragonite dived, but he was just a bit too late: sharp rocks tore out of the ground below him and sent him flying up, but he quickly recovered despite the bleeding gash the sharp rocks had opened on his belly.

"Ice Punch now!" May shouted as Dragonite descended and delivered his Thunderpunch. Tyranitar roared in pain and flung his own fist into Dragonite's face, icicles forming as the dragon was thrown back and crashed into the ground, unconscious.

"You did a fantastic job, Dragonite," Mark muttered as he recalled him. Since Sandslash was gone, the best he had for dealing with Tyranitar was Letaligon. He picked her ball, threw it into the arena and called, "Letaligon, Iron Defense!"

"Tyranitar, Focus Punch!"

As Tyranitar closed his eyes to focus, Letaligon formed fully and seemed momentarily intimidated by her opponent, but that was quickly gone from her expression as she turned her body fully metallic. Mark couldn't remember just what Focus Punch was, but it was probably a Fighting-type move and he figured Letaligon needed all the defense she could get.

When he opened his eyes again, Tyranitar roared and ran towards Letaligon with suddenly a truly astounding speed; Mark watched it in puzzlement as Letaligon ran away with a screech and the huge dinosaur seemed to be somehow catching up with her as white energy gathered around his fist –

Suddenly, he stopped with a grunt. Sparks leapt across his body as his paralysis blocked his muscles. A loud clang rang out above; Mark looked up to see May rubbing her fist, apparently having punched the metal railing of her trainer stand, while glaring straight at him with the same utter hatred she usually reserved for Taylor. For a moment, it kind of disturbed him; then he realized he ought to be taking advantage of the situation.

"Letaligon, Iron Tail!" he called. Her tail glowed white as she swung it at Tyranitar's immobile form, hitting the blue center of his stomach. He grunted in pain but could still not move. Letaligon, seeing her chance, smashed her tail into him again.

"Earthquake!" May ordered.

Tyranitar finally regained control of his muscles, and with a deep roar, he stomped a foot on the ground, sending ripples of pressure across it. Letaligon trembled violently as they passed under her.

"Metal Burst!" Mark blurted out, not entirely sure if it was a good idea to waste her third move yet, but it was a generally useful move anyhow. Ripples of illusory steel spread across the ground in a mirror image of Tyranitar's attack, and his great body shook as they hit him. Letaligon followed it up with yet another smash of her tail, this time producing a visible crack on his blue belly; he roared in pain, the flow of sand around him jerking as if in sympathy.

"Another Earthquake!"

"One more Iron Tail!"

Tyranitar produced yet another Earthquake, almost knocking Letaligon off her feet. Her legs shook like jelly afterwards, but she still managed to strike him one more time in the belly with her tail. Tyranitar doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach, and Letaligon finished the job with a powerful strike to his head, after which he collapsed forward.

As May recalled him wordlessly, Letaligon composed herself. She was better than Mark had thought she was; the trembling of her legs had suggested she was on the verge of fainting, but Mark guessed the Iron Defense had saved her, and now that she had gotten a moment's rest, she didn't look too bad, at least as far as Mark could see through the still-raging sandstorm. She tossed her head, looking at May, who was picking her next Pokéball. The girl paused for a moment after maximizing it, looking at Letaligon, and suddenly grinned.

Mark didn't think that was a good sign, but pushed it out of his mind for the moment.

"Blaziken, go! Sky Uppercut!"

"Letaligon, Earthquake!" Mark countered quickly.

The giant humanoid chicken materialized on the arena, flames flaring up around his wrists as he cried towards the sky. The last remnants of the sandstorm were still whipping around him, making him scowl in irritation before he charged towards his opponent, clenching one talon-fist. Meanwhile, Letaligon reared up on her hind legs and smashed into the ground, sending a flurry of ripples across the ground towards Blaziken. The chicken Pokémon took a great leap while spreading the winglike feather crests on his head to extend it, avoiding most of the attack, but Letaligon quickly smashed her paws into the ground again to catch him as he landed. He grunted in surprise as he was thrown off balance, and Letaligon used the opportunity to thicken the steel coating of her body with another Iron Defense just in time before Blaziken regained his balance and reached her. He gave her a powerful punch in the jaw, and she stumbled back but remained conscious nonetheless and without warning reared up to create yet another Earthquake.

May clenched her first on the status screen, annoyed. "Heat Wave, Blaziken!" she called as her Pokémon collapsed on all fours, disoriented by the Earthquake ripples. As he heard the command, he looked up and managed to take a leap; freed from the ground-based attack, he took a deep breath and expelled it as a wave of superheated air that rippled towards his opponent. Letaligon quickly smashed her paws into the ground once again before closing her eyes and bracing herself for being hit; her entire body glowed a dangerous orange, melting and distorting as she screamed in pain, and Mark watched in horror as she crumpled to the ground, already reaching for her Pokéball to recall her. As the red beam of the ball zoomed out to absorb her, however, Blaziken, who had landed on the ground and been caught in the middle of Letaligon's Earthquake, collapsed on the ground, shivering even as the ripples died down.

Mark's heart was beating rapidly as he threw out his final Pokéball. "Jolteon, go! Thunderbolt!"

"Blaziken, Mach Punch!"

But even though Mach Punch was a fast attack, Blaziken was still recovering from Letaligon's final move, and when Jolteon materialized, he was already beginning to crackle with sparks. With a cry of "Jooolt!", he fired a bolt of lightning towards the rising Blaziken, and the bird screamed as electricity surged through his body, sending him collapsing onto the ground again as he twitched and convulsed, his red plumage scorching and smoking.

The referees waved a red flag, and May reluctantly recalled Blaziken. Mark stared at her in disbelief: unless he had counted something incorrectly, the battle was down to a one on one, and Jolteon wasn't hurt or tired at all!

But there was that disconcerting smile of hers again. She tossed her last ball confidently into the arena and shouted, "Go, Flygon!"

The crowd went wild.

Mark was struck with that sinking feeling again as the dragonfly Pokémon emerged, but refused to give up now that they'd gotten this far.

"Jolteon, Shadow Ball!" That was the TM he had finally found for Jolteon as a backup move against Ground-types. Jolteon wasn't very skilled with it yet, but it was somewhat more powerful than Swift anyway.

"Earthquake!" May ordered.

The white glow faded from Flygon's body; Mark noticed that he, too, had an item hanging around his neck, a strange, glowing, purple orb that throbbed rhythmically, almost like a beating heart. The Dragon-type let out a cry, beating his diamond-shaped wings powerfully towards the ground, and the pressure sent ripples spreading towards Jolteon.

"Wait, try to dodge it!" Mark shouted quickly, though Jolteon appeared to have thought the same: he was still not charging the Shadow Ball, instead crouching low and focusing on the approaching Earthquake waves. He jumped, landed between two waves, leapt up again, narrowly avoided one that passed just as he landed, took one more leap straight towards Flygon – he'd dodged it completely! Mark's heart took a leap; even May's face on the status screen looked kind of impressed.

Jolteon hissed at Flygon and crouched down, producing an orb of shadowy energy in front of him before sending it flying at May's Pokémon. The dragonfly recoiled, shuddering.

"Sand Tomb!" May called. Flygon spun circles around Jolteon in the air, and the ground underneath him crumbled to dust in his wake: Jolteon cried out in surprise as his paws began to sink and the fine sand whirled up all around him, battering him and obscuring his vision. Another Shadow Ball began to form inside the vortex and shot towards Flygon, knocking him back, but the Sand Tomb was already sustaining itself and was not affected even though Flygon's concentration broke.

"And now, Earthquake!"

Mark's mind raced – the Sand Tomb had obviously been intended to prevent Jolteon from dodging, but was there a way to try to counteract it somehow? "Agility!" he realized as Flygon flapped his wings to create another Earthquake. Jolteon took a blindingly fast leap and managed to break free from the vortex of sand and dart away towards more solid ground, where he nimbly skirted between the ripples again, though he was caught by the final wave and tripped. He stood quickly up again and began to charge another Shadow Ball.

This time May only looked furious. "Flygon, Supersonic!"

Mark noticed now, for the first time, that Flygon looked considerably more hurt and worn out than he ought to, but didn't really dwell on the thought. The Pokémon halted in the air, stopping to breathe for a moment before his wings vibrated to produce a high-pitched noise only barely audible to human ears. Jolteon shivered in discomfort, but managed nonetheless to fire the Shadow Ball he'd been preparing.

"Earthquake!" May shouted.

"Try to avoid it with Agility again!" Mark called quickly.

As the Earthquake ripples came speeding towards Jolteon, he once again leapt to try to avoid them, but the Supersonic had disoriented him; he only very clumsily dodged the first ripple but landed awkwardly and had to spend a moment regaining his balance, and in that moment the next ripple approached. As it passed under him, he trembled and shivered and any further dodging efforts were doomed. He stood there crouched low on the ground, shaking, for a second after the final ripple passed.

"Try to get a Shadow Ball in!" Mark shouted, flicking his gaze towards Flygon, and realized then that May's Pokémon was on all fours on the ground, exhausted and drawing in deep breaths. The orb still throbbed around his neck, and now that he thought about it, it had glowed every time Flygon had attacked...

_A Life Orb,_ dawned on him suddenly. He'd heard of that item – it powered up a Pokémon's moves by imbuing them with some of the Pokémon's own life force. Which meant Flygon really was as hurt and weak as he looked. One more Shadow Ball might...

"Flygon, Roost!"

...but of course May wouldn't use an item like that without insurance, would she?

He looked quickly back at Jolteon. He had stood up, but was stumbling, clearly still confused. He began to form a Shadow Ball, but Flygon was already lying down, folding his wings, closing his eyes...

"Quick Attack!" Mark shouted in a sudden burst of inspiration.

Jolteon darted towards Flygon in a yellow blur and tackled him, but Flygon just looked up and cried indignantly before closing his eyes again and being wrapped in a faint blue glow. Jolteon, who seemed to have shaken off the confusion now, began to charge a Shadow Ball by Flygon's side, but when it hit, the Dragon Pokémon had already healed himself.

"Flygon, Earthquake!"

May's Pokémon took off the ground and flapped his wings for yet another Earthquake. Jolteon tried to dodge, but after all the dodging and darting around, he was too exhausted to keep up the necessary speed; he was knocked down by the third ripple to approach him and from there simply collapsed in exhaustion.

"You were great, Jolteon," Mark said quietly as he took out the ball to recall him, his voice drowned out by the explosion of cheering from the audience anyway. The battle had been lost when the Quick Attack had failed to bring Flygon down, and even that had been a faint hope. In a way he was just glad Jolteon hadn't had to strain himself any longer.

He looked across the arena at May as she was declared the winner, and she grinned and waved at him before turning around to exit the trainer stand.

Somehow, he found himself not really minding that he'd lost now, despite everything. He was not sure why.

* * *

He met May again in the Pokémon Center, where she had already settled comfortably on a couch to wait for her Pokémon to be healed, having arrived before him. Mark handed his own to the nurse and came over to her.

"Congratulations," he said as he sat down.

May beamed at him, all traces of the annoyance during the battle gone. "Thanks, Mark. Disappointed?"

He considered it. "No, not really," he said, truthfully. "I think I knew I'd lose, deep down. You're better than me. You've always been better than me. I just told myself we had a chance so I could do my best and encourage my Pokémon to do their best, and they did. It went great, all things considered. For a moment I even honestly thought I could win."

"They did do their best," May agreed with a nod. "Jolteon was _great_. So was Dragonite. And Letaligon. Even if you got really lucky with the paralysis thing."

"I'll tell them when they're healed," Mark replied and smiled. "I'm sure they'll appreciate it."

"And speaking of paralysis, Floatzel is going to be furious that Dragonite saved her."

Mark chuckled. "Seriously, though, she had me worried for a moment."

May nodded distantly, looking away. "Me too." She paused and looked at Mark. "Tell him..." She trailed off. "No, never mind."

He didn't press it. He looked past her and saw the nurse at the counter waving to catch his attention, then pointing at May. "I think your Pokémon are healed."

"Okay," she said, looking quickly around to confirm it before she stood up. "Thanks for the battle. It was fun." She smiled and looked like she meant it, even if Mark suspected she'd think of it very differently if by some miracle he had actually won.

He smiled back anyway. "You're welcome."

* * *

After Mark had retrieved his Pokémon, the first thing he did was head off to his room and send out Scyther.

"How did it go?" asked the mantis when he had materialized, his expression neutral.

"We lost," Mark said, giving his Pokémon a searching look.

Scyther nodded slowly. "I suppose that was inevitable."

_At least he isn't chuckling with glee,_ Mark thought dully. "So... what? Feel like we've fixed it?"

Scyther shook his head. "I think you were right. I'd rather fight to win than feel obligated to lose for the rest of my life." He paused for a moment. "The truth is that fighting for you is the only thing that gives me joy and purpose anymore. If I must lose that to follow the Code, screw the Code."

He winced as he said it, but Mark knew he meant it. "I appreciate it," he replied. "I hope it's what will make you happiest."

Scyther looked uncertainly around as if debating whether to say something. "Did Nightmare... did she battle?" he muttered at last.

"Yeah," Mark said.

The mantis looked up. "Did she seem content with it? Battling for a trainer, being an exile from the swarm, being a...?"

Mark thought back to that battle, to the Scizor's playful Swords Dance and smug avoidance of Hypnosis. "Yeah," he replied. "She seemed to be enjoying herself."

Scyther nodded once. "If she can be happy like that, I can too."

Mark smiled at him. "I hope you will."

* * *

He sent out all his Pokémon later, outside at their familiar training spot, where there was comfortable room and privacy for all of them. He recounted the progression of the battle, with interjections from the one who had been fighting at each point, and relayed May's compliments to Jolteon, Dragonite and Letaligon.

"And honestly, you were all great," he continued. "Sandslash, it was my fault I didn't give you an attack sooner or more varied moves. I'm sorry. Scyther, you were forced to blindly attack a fully-grown Mutark and then a Skarmory, who has an overwhelming advantage against you even without you being Taunted. You did great for the circumstances. And Charizard, you may technically have had a type advantage, but Skarmory had gotten a couple of Swords Dances in and had an extremely effective attack against you; you couldn't have been expected to win on brute force, and you did a fantastic job dodging what you could. We were never going to become Champions, but you more than showed you were worthy of being there in the top eight, and that's what matters most. I'm really proud of you. You've all grown a lot stronger and learned new moves and skills – the legendaries won't know what hit them." He cracked a smile as some of the Pokémon chuckled at that. "And, well, while we're still here, we won't let that time go to waste. We'll root for May to get as far as she can, and for Taylor to be beaten. We can maybe help her train, or train for the legendary battles ourselves. Maybe I could hang around at the library and see if I can find anything about sightings of the remaining legendaries. And then, when the tournament is over..." He eyed Letaligon. "Well, first we'll take Letaligon to Ruxido, since that's what she wants. And then we'll head off and look for the legendaries. We'll find them, we'll capture them, we'll prevent the War of the Legends."

The Pokémon all nodded or muttered in agreement.

"And then..." He took a deep breath. "Then I'm going home."

They looked at him in surprise – more, Mark hoped, at the context of this revelation than its content.

"I've been to the League now and done better than I ever dared to hope. Again, you've been fantastic all the way. But I'm done being a trainer. The only reason I wanted to in the first place was that everyone else was one. I've never been any good at it. Even though it's been fun – sometimes –" He saw Charizard smile. "Well, it's just not something I'd want to do for a living or for many years. I have a mission now, which I'm going to complete to the best of my ability, but when that's done, my journey is over. It'll probably be a while, but when that time comes, you're going to have to choose what you want to do. You can stay with me in Sailance if you want, but I can also take you back where I caught you, or wherever you like."

They were silent, looking uncertainly at one another; all except Letaligon, who was pawing impatiently at the ground, clearly feeling she was no longer being addressed.

"You don't have to make that choice now. I just want you to know about it and have thought about it by that time. I'll go along with whatever you choose. Again, it'll probably be a while, and I'll do my best as your trainer until then. This is just a... a forewarning." He looked between his Pokémon. "Okay?"

They nodded one by one. Mark saw Scyther look emptily straight ahead and thought back to his earlier words about how battling for Mark was the only thing he lived for; he felt a pang of guilt in his stomach and hoped that he would find something to live for before that.

"Well, it was nothing else for now. I'm sorry if I've let you down." He paused. "Want to get back in your balls, take a nap, what?"

They all preferred to return to their Pokéballs now, though Jolteon, Letaligon and Sandslash wanted to sleep outside their balls. Mark walked alone back to his room, feeling sadness at what he couldn't help somehow perceiving as a betrayal of his Pokémon, but also a tingly sort of excitement, like an era of his life had come to an end and a new one was about to begin.


	52. Fake-Out

**Chapter 51: Fake-Out**

"You'll never guess what I just found."

Mark looked up, making sure to leave his hand half-covering the tabloid he was reading: he felt stupid to have picked it up, but the cover page had had a blown-up photograph of some blurry patches that were claimed to be two of the Color Dragons, and it was the closest he had come so far to finding anything about relatively recent legendary sightings at the library.

May thrust an unremarkable-looking paperback into his hands and he looked blankly at it.

"_Blood Sport: A Fighter's View of Fighting_," he read from the front. It was one of those typical blown-up titles that took up half of the cover; on this one, the publisher had apparently determined that it would look the most dramatic if it had a black background with the title bright red in a font that was meant to look like it was dripping blood but more resembled cheesy nail polish. He looked quizzically up at May.

"Turn it over," she just said. He did, flipping the book over to read the back cover, and was greeted by a black-and-white photo of a Hitmonchan that looked distinctly familiar.

"…Fury? Fury the Hitmonchan wrote a book?" Mark asked incredulously and quickly began to read the blurb beside the picture. "'In this thought-provoking book, the world's first Pokémon to obtain a trainer license provides a sharp and witty criticism of the old-fashioned view of Pokémon battling that still permeates the society of today…'" He flipped the book over again and opened it at a random page in the middle.

_…with competitions such as the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament of the Green Town Pokémon Festival, which I myself have had the 'pleasure' of participating in. At a glance, the concept looks promising: Pokémon are to battle by themselves, using their own wits and skill rather than being commanded by their trainers who normally get more than their fair share of the glory, and so I had high hopes when I entered, figuring it to be just my sort of thing. At the very least I was expecting to have found a tournament in which Pokémon were given the credit they deserved. Instead I was treated to what more resembled a spectacularly elaborate sadist fantasy; Pokémon have never been objectified more than in this brutal game in which the human organizers seem, more than anything, to be hoping to watch the battlers murder or mutilate one another. (I suppose it would be futile to point out to them that most Pokémon do not have it in their cultures to murder one another unprovoked and fight mostly in friendly competition with serious disputes on the side, even provided they looked up from the carnage for long enough to listen.) I watched as Pokémon were pitted against others they had a severe type disadvantage against or were at a dramatically higher level instead of being matched evenly, and when a trainer stood up in concern when his Pokémon seemed to be in mortal danger, he was told with a disturbing sort of glee that trainers were not allowed to interfere, while the organizers did absolutely nothing even though the winner had been clearly determined by that point. I don't blame the Pokémon who participated, or their trainers – they might easily have been deceived by the appearance of it as I was – but why the Pokémon Festival openly featured this barbaric event was beyond me once I had seen it for what it was. As it happens I was curious enough to ask the organizers of the Festival, who seemed at least tentatively open to my perspective when I spoke to them. I permit myself to hope that the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament will be off the list of events next year, but who knows what other competitions in the same vein might be going on with a lower profile under the same guise of something revolutionary and Pokémon-centered?_

"I flipped through it," May said as Mark looked up in astonishment. "It's all about trainer-centicism and stuff, dotted with amusing anecdotes about his journey. I'd never have guessed he was the political type."

Mark shook his head and closed the book, making a mental note to try to read it sometime when all this was over.

"And guess what else," May went on. "Robin Riverstone is a girl."

"Really?" Mark thought quickly back to that first preliminary battle they'd watched and to the trainer who had won with a Charizard and a Cacturne. She'd had short hair and a sort of boyish face and a voice of ambiguous pitch; they'd pretty much assumed it was a guy, but thinking on it, there had been no real indication either way.

"I went to look her up for the battle, and that's what her profile says. So I'm not the only girl in the semifinals. At least that's good news."

Mark nodded. She'd been annoyed about that the day before, although by the time she'd brought that up she'd been in a terrible mood already after a lengthy rant about the fact that Taylor had also proceeded to the semifinals and she had still not been matched against him.

"Found anything on the legendaries?" May finally asked, glancing at the magazine he'd been reading.

"Nothing of much worth." Mark sighed. "This is all just people going all excited over somebody who thinks he photographed the Color Dragons around the Eastern Cliffs. It's so blurry it could be Pidgey for all we know."

"Well, we might as well check it out, after we're out of here," May replied. "It's pretty much on the way to Ruxido anyway, and that's where we're taking Letaligon, right? And then we can stop at the Ouen Safari, too. I've always wanted to go there."

Mark shrugged. He had become rather cynical about legendary sightings over the years, having read about a multitude of confirmed hoaxes and still more supposed sightings that were never repeated or simply inconsistent with others. On the other hand, he of course _wanted_ it to be true, and it wasn't as if they had never been possibly spotted for real.

"Well, I don't know about you," May said, "but I'm going to train. I've got all the info on Robin I need."

Mark nodded, looked at the magazine – he had more or less finished the article – and stood up. "I'm coming with you. It's got to be more fun than this."

* * *

It was weird to just sit there with his team, watching May's idea of discussing strategies.

"We know she's good," she was saying, walking left past the straight line that her Pokémon formed, eying each one as she passed them. She turned sharply around at Floatzel's end of the line and walked back the other way, continuing to talk. "There can't be any stupid mistakes. It could cost us the match. I've seen her battle twice and I can tell we'll have to work this perfectly."

Now that her back was turned, the sea otter returned to glaring at Mark, apparently still not having forgiven him for allowing Dragonite to save her from drowning. The other Pokémon followed her with their eyes as she paced down the line, turned back around (Floatzel's gaze snapped back to her as if she'd been listening all along) and repeated the maneuver, still going on about the Pokémon that Robin Riverstone had and what kinds of strategies May had noticed her using.

Mark had intended to try to follow the discussion in the hope of learning something, but he quickly zoned out as May seemingly simply thought aloud about what would and wouldn't work. She mentioned a truly inordinate number of moves that she seemed to have taught her Pokémon at some point (Raichu could learn Grass Knot?) and half of what she said was very difficult to follow, going along logical pathways that were really not as obvious as May seemed to think they were and frequently backtracking and jumping back and forth. He looked at her Pokémon and wondered idly if they had actually learned how to keep up with her train of thought or if they just pretended.

He looked around at his own Pokémon for comparison. Letaligon actually appeared to be keeping up with it, miraculously enough. Dragonite was also seemingly trying to listen, though he glanced occasionally at Floatzel, who nonetheless refused to look directly at him, instead focusing her grudge towards Mark for the moment. Jolteon scratched nervously at the ground, watching May with a miserable expression of confusion on his face. Charizard and Sandslash had simply lain down to sleep. Scyther sat in the grass near Mark and swept his scythe absent-mindedly across it, tiny pieces of wet grass blades sticking to the blade as it chopped them away.

He was beginning to seriously consider going back to the library when suddenly he heard his name. He looked quickly around before it registered properly in his mind that the voice had been telepathic.

_"Mark,"_ Chaletwo repeated urgently. _"I just picked up a psychic distress call."_

It took a moment for him to realize what that meant. "Wait – so Alan's found a legendary?"

_"Seems like it. Hurry up."_

"May!" Mark called; she stopped mid-sentence and looked up, apparently annoyed at the interruption. "Alan's found a legendary. We have to go!"

Her mouth fell briefly open, but then she nodded quickly towards all her Pokémon and recalled them into their Pokéballs. Mark did the same and walked towards her, already accessing the PC system in his Pokédex to switch Chaletwo to an active ball so that he could come out. His heart was pounding in his chest – which legendary had Alan found? He hoped it wasn't something like the Waraider herd. He looked briefly around to make sure there was no one who might see what was going on.

Chaletwo burst out of the Pokéball, placed his bulbous hands on Mark and May's shoulders and whisked them away. Suddenly they were standing in a grassy field close to where a sparse fir forest met a mountainside; Chaletwo had already recalled himself. Mark didn't recognize the place at all. He turned around quickly, looking for Alan and the legendary, and found instead a teenage girl with very long, dark brown hair who was glancing wildly from side to side as an Alakazam stood in front of her and struggled to maintain a Light Screen against a bright Flamethrower.

_"Leah?"_ Chaletwo's voice asked quizzically. _"That distress call came from you?"_

"Chaletwo?" the girl called, looking straight towards Mark and May. "Thank God! Help me out here!"

Mark was too busy staring at the source of the Flamethrower to really think about who this girl was. Just a few feet away, hopelessly tangled in what seemed like several sticky, white Spider Webs, was Entei, one of the legendary Beasts of Johto. He struggled against his bonds with all his might in between firing Flamethrower after Flamethrower at the girl's Alakazam, who strained against the force of the repeated attacks, clearly about to give in. From the looks of the girl's face, it was her last Pokémon.

He realized with a jolt that May's Pokémon were materializing around him and quickly threw out his own Pokéballs, only barely remembering to leave out the ball Chaletwo was currently in. He took out his Pokédex again to switch Chaletwo back for Jolteon and wished he'd had the sense to wake up Charizard and Sandslash before they'd left; they were looking sleepily up and blinking, then bolting up as they realized what was going on.

_"Are you mad?"_ Chaletwo's voice was saying fiercely in Mark's head, though it was apparently directed at the Alakazam's trainer. _"You can't just send a general distress call when you're battling a legendary in the hope that I'll happen to hear it and come to your aid! What if a legendary had heard it?"_

"What? You told me to do that if it got bad!" the girl called as the Pokémon rushed to attack the immobilized Entei. The legendary turned his head as Floatzel smacked into his body with a splash, followed by a Thunderbolt from Jolteon and a quick slash from Scyther. Dragonite fired a powerful Hyper Beam that threw Entei back a little.

_"...Did I?"_

Entei gave Floatzel an indignant snort as Charizard landed on his back, claws flaring with dragon fire. Next to May, Mutark was already growing into a stronger form.

"Yes! You said there are no Psychic legendaries in Johto anymore and the others wouldn't teleport to another region to respond to something like that! And that the odds a trainer will both have a Psychic Pokémon out that's strong enough to pick it up and decide to go do something about it was negligible!"

As Floatzel stumbled back in a daze and tripped over herself, Charizard grunted, realizing too late that the sticky Spider Web could trap him as easily as Entei himself now that he had come into contact with it. The legendary Pokémon roared and glowed red, the sticky threads burning with an unpleasant smell before he released a plume of flame around the entire battlefield. Mark turned away to protect his face from the scorching heat and heard the cries of several of the Pokémon as the attack hit them; when he could look again, Scyther was down and Letaligon was running weakly towards the legendary to hit it with a Slash before she collapsed on the ground as well. Mark recalled them worriedly; he had hoped their training during the League would prevent Pokémon going down in one hit from the legendaries' attacks.

_"...Fine, I guess I remember saying that, but..."_

"Will you just shut up and try to help?" Leah shouted as she recalled her Alakazam, who had apparently been brought down by the attack as well. "I thought this was supposed to be kind of important!"

_"They're helping already,"_ Chaletwo mumbled grumpily, though he did not further the argument. The Eruption had partly scorched the threads of Ariados silk holding Entei captive, and though they did not release their grip on the legendary, it did allow the much less stuck Charizard to wriggle loose from Entei's back at last.

"Try to stick to attacks that don't require physical contact, everybody," Mark called. The moment Charizard was off and a safe distance away, May ordered her Tyranitar to use Stone Edge, and the ground underneath Entei exploded upwards, sharp rocks digging up into his body while Flygon breathed a sparkling Dragonbreath at his face. He roared, blinded, and again his body glowed brightly red and spawned an explosion of flames. May's Skarmory fell screeching to the ground after pulling off a Rock Slide; Mutark collapsed with a mewling whine.

As May took out two Pokéballs to recall them and her Blaziken fired a bright blue Focus Blast, Mark eyed the river flowing over the plains nearby and realized that he could send out Gyarados – but the image of Suicune's body flashed in his mind and he shuddered at the thought. Meanwhile, May was furiously pressing buttons on her Pokédex to switch Skarmory and Mutark to the computer before she threw out two new balls, releasing Butterfree and Raichu in their place.

"Thunder Wave and Tailwind!" she called.

As Sandslash called a rain of rocks upon Entei, Raichu crouched down and sent a sparkling wave of electricity towards the legendary. He stiffened and growled as he strained to move his head up towards Butterfree; she began to flap her wings in a rhythmic pattern until she had produced a strong wind at their backs.

Entei managed to move at last as two Thunderbolts from Jolteon and Raichu struck him. Letting out a deep roar, he enveloped himself in a glow of heat yet again, and the Pokémon braced themselves for being hit by the fiery eruption of before. Instead, however, it was a weaker plume more concentrated around Entei himself, and it burned through the last threads of silk that were binding him to the ground. Entei rose to his feet, shook off the final remains of the thread, and was clearly preparing to hightail it out of there as Tyranitar produced a second explosion of rocks from the ground below him. With nothing tying him down, Entei was thrown up and landed awkwardly on his side.

"Floatzel, Whirlpool!" May shouted as the legendary Pokémon stumbled back to his feet. Floatzel snapped out of her daze just in time, and a vortex of water sprang up around Entei, preventing him from escaping.

Entei growled as Sandslash jumped bravely through the Whirlpool and latched onto his leg, digging his claws into the soft paw. Entei slammed his other paw down on him to peel him off, but just then Dragonite dived straight into him while flaring with blue flames and threw him onto his side. Dragonite quickly picked up the already unconscious Sandslash and carried him out of the Whirlpool, where he could be recalled. Mark's heart thumped as the pangolin's body was absorbed back into his Pokéball; Entei was struggling to get up now, thanks to the injuries on his paw.

"Tyranitar, use Stone Edge! Blaziken, stay back for now! Flygon, Dragonbreath! Waterfall, Floatzel! Butterfree, Psychic!" May barked from behind him. Her Blaziken joined Charizard, who has hovering some distance away, not daring to risk trying to cross the Whirlpool while it was in full force. Meanwhile, the ground under the fallen legendary exploded upwards yet again while Flygon breathed sparkly dragon flames towards him, and Jolteon and Raichu pulled together for a collaborative Thunderbolt just before Floatzel jumped into the Whirlpool and sent water crashing down on Entei. Butterfree sent a blast of psychic energy the legendary's way.

Mark shuddered as he tried to see the legendary through the vortex. It was still uncomfortable to look at one of the legendary Pokémon he had loved and respected since he was little being ganged up on, and he realized dimly that he hadn't really given any orders in the battle so far. "Try an Aqua Tail?" he called to Dragonite, who had seemingly thought much the same thing as he hovered above waiting for an opportunity to get a hit in; only moments later, when Entei had smacked Floatzel away, the dragon dived down with his tail turned aquatic, only to suddenly stop in mid-air, his eyes widening before he simply crumpled to the ground and didn't stand back up. Mark recalled him, puzzled, while Jolteon and Raichu pulled off one more Thunderbolt.

Floatzel was moving in for another attack when, similar to Dragonite, her eyes suddenly widened and she just sort of went limp. Some part of Mark's brain remembered that Entei knew Extrasensory, and his sheer power could be because he might have used Calm Mind a few times before they'd come along. He felt a pang in his heart as Jolteon suffered the same fate and recalled him quickly. If Entei would just start picking them off with the Psychic move now, he really ought to send out Gyarados anyway; he took out his Pokédex and quickly began to switch him to an active ball.

The Whirlpool had begun to lose force and dissipate into a soft drizzle around the area; Entei had managed to get to his feet, but he was crouched low, shivering after being trapped inside the vortex of water for so long. He sent a Flamethrower flying straight at May's Butterfree, who crumpled to the ground with her wings scorched, and then made what looked like an attempt to jump, but his paralysis stopped him just as May replaced her own Pokédex on her belt. "Spirit, go! Mean Look!" she called, throwing forth a ball.

_Wait a minute,_ Mark suddenly thought just as he was about to send out Gyarados. _Spirit. Entei._

The Ninetales materialized from her Pokéball, and all of a sudden Entei stopped and straightened himself with difficulty. "Ah," he said, his voice still a bit hoarse and weak from the battle. "You."

All of Mark and May's remaining Pokémon stopped where they were standing. Leah looked at Mark and then May in puzzlement. _"We're idiots!"_ Chaletwo spat privately to Mark, not wanting to make his presence known to the other legendary. _"We could have had Spirit talk to him to begin with, but with Leah being here and all I just sort of…"_

"You have been fighting Entei?" Spirit asked sharply, looking over at May. All the other Pokémon looked at her. Entei continued to gaze at Spirit, ignoring all the tearing, blood and dragonfire burns streaking his thick fur after the battle.

Mark suddenly felt one of the Pokéballs at his belt twitch, and Gyarados materialized in the river. An uncomfortable flash of déjà vu struck Mark and he frantically grabbed the Pokéball, ready to recall him, but hesitated as Entei looked at Gyarados.

"The other," the legendary said with a nod. "Suicune has told me about you."

"Told you about me?" Gyarados spat. "What does he think I am, his son?"

"Why can they speak English?" Leah mouthed at Mark, looking utterly confused. He tried to make some sort of a gesture that could be interpreted as 'long story; explain later'.

"Master Entei," Spirit said, bowing down, "I must bring you grave news. Suicune's Chosen has rebelled and murdered his mas..."

"I know," Entei interrupted, turning his intense gaze back towards her and instantly silencing her.

"Tell me what all this is about or I'll do the same to you," Gyarados growled, and Mark tightened his grip on the Pokéball in his hand.

"I could ask you the same question," said Entei, looking searchingly at Gyarados and then Spirit. "Why are you out here trying to capture me?"

There was a silence. Everyone looked doubtfully at one another, then settled for looking at Mark, who fingered Gyarados's Pokéball nervously. They couldn't tell the legendaries about their mission, could they...?

_"Hello, Entei,"_ said Chaletwo with a weary sigh before anyone else had said anything.

"Chaletwo? That is a surprise." Entei surveyed Mark with interest for a moment of thought. "Is this about whatever it was you tried to convince us all to be captured for some twenty years back?"

_"What else?"_ said Chaletwo resentfully. _"No one agreed to it, and it's extremely important, so I had to get it done by force. If you don't allow us to capture you willingly now, we'll beat you down and capture you anyway. You're weak. You couldn't handle all these Pokémon with the little you have left."_

Entei spent a silent second looking at Mark with something like amusement glinting in his eyes. Then: "Say, Chaletwo... is this by any chance about preventing the War of the Legends?"

Everyone stared at Entei.

_"How do you know about the War of the Legends?"_ Chaletwo's voice was sharp, almost angry.

"The same way you do, presumably," Entei replied. "Not long after you and Molzapart tried to persuade us, we the Beasts of Johto noticed our power loss, so we talked to Mew. She was reluctant, but she told us about the War and that we couldn't inform the other legendaries for fear that chaos would arise. So we hatched a plan of our own."

Somewhere in the back of Mark's numb mind, he remembered that Mew was one of those legendaries with no grammatical gender preference, even though Chaletwo had always used the masculine.

_"So... you're trying to prevent it as well?"_ Chaletwo asked limply.

"Not quite. We didn't think of anything to prevent it altogether – Pokéballs? Do you really think that will work? – but we did figure that it might be safer, for us at least, to insure our souls and store our power somewhere the Destroyer couldn't reach it. So we each chose a few young potential Pokémon of our types, gave them a share of our power, made them speak human to minimize the potential conflict with that species, put them through some tests to see which had the greatest chance of survival..."

"You selfish legendaries," Gyarados spat, making a point of speaking the Pokémon language this time. "Always thinking about your own insurance, saving your own skins, sacrificing other Pokémon for your sake. You're repulsive."

"We are all selfish," Entei replied, his eyes suddenly cold and merciless. "No one wants to die. The difference is that your death is inevitable and ours isn't."

There was a stunned silence. Mark stared at the legendary, feeling like a cold bucket of water had been dumped over his head.

"We feared you would take it like this," Entei continued viciously. "That's why we didn't explain it to you. You mortals don't know what it really is to fear death, to realize that your time might be limited after thinking otherwise for a thousand years. Of course we tried to save ourselves. Who do you think Molzapart and Chaletwo are trying to save? But they do it by making you fight us in difficult battles and forcing us to injure you, while we are saving ourselves by giving you great power to use as your own, in any manner you choose, at the cost of a few measly trials. By all rights, you should be grateful."

"I am," said Spirit firmly. "I am honoured to be your vessel. The Gyarados is ungrateful for his gift, but..."

"Wait," Leah spoke up suddenly. "I don't get it. You took out my entire team and half of theirs, but now you're telling me you gave your power to this Ninetales? And what's this about murdering Suicune?" She looked at Gyarados with an odd expression somewhere midway between disturbed and confused.

"Power is drained more slowly from the weaker legendaries," Entei said. "We gave a portion of our powers to the potentials, and afterwards our power loss slowed down accordingly, so by now the difference is slight."

"So power isn't drained from the Chosen at all?" May asked.

"No. Only legendaries are affected by the Destroyer. We do not know why that is, but it is why we could store our power safely in mortal Pokémon. Our plan was in two parts: we would store power within the bodies of the potentials, and we would then choose one of them each – the Chosen – to carry our souls so that after the War, we could be resurrected by any Pokémon with the ability and then take our power back."

Gyarados's face contorted in anger. "So Suicune isn't dead."

"Only temporarily," said Entei, his voice calm. "Suicune's soul is stored in the gems on your neck, and a large portion of his power within the bodies of you and several other Water Pokémon around the world."

The sea monster roared madly in rage and twisted his head downwards in an attempt to reach the soul gems with his fangs, but they were too far up on his neck segments. Suddenly Mark felt bizarrely sorry for him.

"Of course," Entei went on, turning his gaze towards Mark, "since Chaletwo is with you, I trust he will understand the gravity of the situation and ensure that the gems are not destroyed from here on."

_"...Of course,"_ Chaletwo replied after a second's hesitation. _"Gyarados, stop it, or Mark will recall you."_

Gyarados didn't stop it. He roared hatefully again and began to slam his head and neck against the ground, and for a moment, Mark wanted to let him. But he reminded himself that as long as the gems were intact, Suicune wasn't really dead, and Suicune was a legendary and it was good that Suicune was alive after all, even if he had selfishly put Gyarados through unimaginable suffering for years just to save himself from the mortality other creatures had to take for granted...

He pressed the button on the ball and muttered, "I'm sorry, Gyarados," as the red Pokéball beam absorbed him.

"What's with the spirit form?" May asked Entei after a moment's pause, her expression neutral. "Why did you give her that power?"

"She chose it for herself," Entei replied. "We only give them pure, raw power; it is up to the individual Pokémon how they learn to utilize it, whether they realize it consciously or not."

May nodded contemplatively. "What about Raikou? Does Raikou have a Chosen?"

"Raikou has potentials around the world, but he was captured before he could pick one of them as a Chosen. It is a shame, but it cannot be helped. We must move on without him."

Mark was beginning to feel a little sick to his stomach.

_"Well, it's been nice to talk with you and find out what you've been doing behind our backs, Entei, but now we have to capture you and prevent the actual War,"_ said Chaletwo shortly. _"Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"_

"Capture?" Entei snorted. "I think not. You may continue your futile efforts if you choose so, but I am spending the War in that necklace, not in a ball. Goodbye, Chaletwo."

And before anyone could respond, Entei crouched down and closed his eyes, and millions of bolts of thready blue lightning shot from him to Spirit, wrapping around her as Entei grimaced in pain. It was over much sooner than when Suicune had done the same to Gyarados; after mere seconds it simply stopped, and Entei's body collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.

"I can feel it," whispered Spirit, looking down at the red gems of her necklace. "It's heavier."

Leah carefully threw an Ultra Ball; it bounced off Entei like any inanimate object. "He's dead, all right," she said.

"Do you think there is... any risk to them being like that when the War comes?" May asked anxiously, glancing at Mark.

"No," Chaletwo replied. "He was right. The Destroyer can't drain power from mortal Pokémon, and a soul in a gem can't do much harm to anyone. It shouldn't make a difference that they're there and not in Pokéballs."

"Well, then we might as well consider this a capture, I guess," she said, looking over at Entei's body. "How do we hide him?"

Mark looked away, shuddering. The Pokémon were silent and grave; May took out Pokéballs to recall hers, and Mark did the same for Charizard and Jolteon. Leah was spraying her Alakazam with some potions she'd taken from her backpack.

"Felix can probably levitate the body out of the way," she said, fairly nonchalantly. "So Chaletwo, were you going to introduce us?" She looked at Mark and May with an all too cheerful smile.

_"Right. Mark and May, that is Leah, the first trainer I recruited to prevent the War. Leah, this is Mark, the latest recruit, and that is May, a friend of his who has also been helping out."_

"Cool," said Leah, waving at them. "Hi."

"Hi," May replied, but Mark just vaguely raised his hand; he didn't quite trust himself to talk right now.

"How have you been doing so far? How many you got before Entei?"

"Four with Suicune," May answered.

Leah raised her eyebrows. "Four? In your first couple of months?"

_"Well, all of them were in previously known locations,"_ Chaletwo replied.

"Oh," said Leah. "Well, that doesn't count. The hard part is tracking them down. I didn't find Latios until I'd been chasing him for three months straight, and then Latias came and destroyed the Spider Web so they both got away in the end. That was frustrating."

_"That reminds me – have you had any success since we last talked?"_ Chaletwo asked her.

She shook her head. "Just been chasing Entei most of that time. Oh, but I met Mary the other day, and she'd gotten Articuno a bit before that. She said she'd be going to Ouen to try to find the Waraider herd."

Mark's heart took a sudden leap. "Wait," he said. "Did you say Articuno?"

"Yeah," said Leah like it was the most natural thing in the world. "He was in Seafoam after all. Said the battle wasn't so bad, but the caves were a nightmare to get through."

"But that means Articuno's not the Destroyer!" he blurted out.

"Well, yeah," Leah said, cocking an eyebrow. "Why would Articuno be the Destroyer?"

_"It was just a theory we had… apparently we were wrong."_

"But who is the Destroyer then?" Mark asked, wide-eyed. "We don't even have any leads anymore now. One of us will probably attack him at some point and… we might _all_ attack him at some point!"

_"It could still be an unknown legendary, or even not a legendary at all,"_ Chaletwo pointed out. _"There is little logical reason why any of the other known legendaries should be the Destroyer. Second created by the Creator was a theory, but…"_

"I don't know about you," said Leah, looking at Mark, "but for my books, the risk of attacking the Destroyer and getting killed really isn't so bad compared to the alternative risk of not attacking some legendary that then turns out not to be the Destroyer and kills us all when the War starts. Just stop with the pessimism and hope for the best. What else is there to do on a mission like this?"

Mark sighed. There seemed to be a bottomless pit in his stomach. Gyarados had been right all along; Suicune had chosen him, used him and made him suffer just to save his own neck. Of course, because what would be more frightening to a naturally immortal being than the sudden knowledge of inevitable death? The legendaries weren't deities or higher beings to be revered and worshipped. They were just flawed, scared, selfish individuals, desperate to survive their oncoming doom by any means available to them, no matter what the price or who it hurt.

He wasn't even sure anymore if they deserved to be saved.

But he thought of all the innocent people and Pokémon who would also die if the War came to pass, just because they'd be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and forced his resolve back together.

"You're right," he said grimly. "We'll hope for the best."

May rolled her eyes, but didn't remark on it. "Where are you heading next, Leah?" she asked instead. "Since Entei is gone?"

Leah shrugged. "I'm the only legendary hunter in Johto at the moment, so I guess I'll stick around here and comb the region for Mew."

It struck Mark properly for the first time that they were actually in Johto. It felt strange to have been so suddenly whisked away to a different region.

"Well, we're competing in the Ouen League at the moment to get our Pokémon up to par for the legendary battles we have left," said May. "So we'd probably better get going back there. Good luck finding Mew."

"Good luck with the League and all the rest," Leah said with a grin. "It was nice to meet you. I'll handle Entei's body, so don't worry about it."

Mark nodded as he switched Chaletwo to an active ball. "Thanks. Nice to meet you too."

He waved, trying not to look at the great furred shape lying behind Leah as Chaletwo materialized beside them and teleported them back to Ouen.


	53. The League Finals

**Chapter 52: The League Finals**

"Charizard, Focus Blast!" ordered Robin Riverstone, pointing decisively towards May's Tyranitar. The Fire Pokémon roared in response before closing his eyes in concentration; a ripple of energy spread out from his body and struck Tyranitar powerfully. The dinosaur keeled over in pain with a suppressed groan.

"Come on, Tyranitar! Stone Edge!" May called, clenching her fist.

The great Rock Pokémon straightened himself with a deep, rumbling roar as the other girl quickly countered with a command to fly up to dodge. No sooner had sharp boulders torn themselves from the earth under where the dragon was circling than it shot straight up into the air, outspeeding the rising rocks before curving neatly out of their way while they lost their momentum and crashed back down on the arena.

"Another Focus Blast!" yelled Robin.

"Rock Slide!" May ordered as the Charizard dived, its eyes glinting triumphantly before it closed them and began to concentrate. Tyranitar raised several chunks of rock from the ground, but a ripple of focused energy hit him before he'd had the chance to send them at their target, and he staggered backwards, the levitating rocks trembling in the air.

"Don't lose focus!" May shouted. "Finish the attack!"

Tyranitar gritted his teeth, struggling to stand on his shaking legs, and the boulders twitched ever so slightly in Charizard's direction, but then the dinosaur simply slumped down on the ground, giving way to unconsciousness. The Rock Slide crashed down on the arena as well, as if to accentuate his fall, while the audience cheered wildly.

Mark saw the edge of May's mouth twitch on the status screen before she mouthed something inaudible, took out Tyranitar's Pokéball and recalled him.

"And it's down to a one-on-one!" boomed the voice of the announcer. "Robin Riverstone has managed quite a turnabout here by taking down May's Tyranitar with her last pick, Charizard! Only minutes ago it seemed like a sure victory for May Wallace, but the gap has closed considerably with this surprising turn of events! Will Robin use this situation to wrench the ticket to the finals from May's grasp?"

It was probably a good thing the in-battle commentary was only audible to the spectators; Mark imagined it would probably have irritated May to hear it described like that. Which, he supposed, was probably the reason they made it that way; he figured it would inevitably be distracting to have a loud voice talking about you in the background while you're trying to think.

May had picked out her next, final Pokéball, but Mark already knew what was in it; he'd been there when she'd picked out her team. "Floatzel, go!" she shouted as she hurled it into the arena. "Aqua Jet!"

Everyone around Mark cheered wildly as the sea otter materialized. "Would you look at that!" said the commentator. "It seems like May's last Pokémon happened to be a Water-type! This is going to be tough for Robin's Charizard."

She would _hate_ that description, Mark thought with vague amusement as Floatzel shot up in a splash of water to tackle Charizard in the air. It hadn't _happened_ to be a Water-type; she'd specifically noticed that Robin seemingly always used her Charizard and that it was her team's greatest Water weakness, in addition to having a battling style that involved a lot of quick manoeuvres and dodging, and therefore reserved Floatzel for the job of taking it down. The happenstance was that the switches had aligned favourably along with a bit of luck so that Robin had been forced to send out Charizard last against a fairly healthy Tyranitar – which, granted, had made May smirk with the confidence of victory a bit too soon, but this was merely falling back on the original plan.

"Charizard, Solarbeam!"

While Mark was thinking, Charizard had flicked its tail indignantly at the already falling Floatzel, but it had only barely brushed against her, and now the dragon Pokémon opened its mouth and began to form an orb of light between its teeth.

"Floatzel, get in the pool and shield with Ice Punch!"

This was a special technique they'd practiced the day before. The otter landed in the pool, already gathering power from her Nevermeltice, and then swished her paw above her in swift circles so that a rounded sheet of ice formed between her and the Charizard. As the dragon fired the Solarbeam, it quickly melted the ice and formed clouds of steam above the pool, but not quickly enough to eat through the entire shield before the gathered solar energy was spent. As soon as the beam faded, Floatzel leapt out of the steaming pool with a gleeful chuckle.

"Ooh, a clever spin on an ordinary move!" said the commentator. "But what else do you expect here in the semifinals of the Ouen League?"

"Sunny Day!" called Robin, frowning.

"Taunt!"

As the Charizard was preparing to clear the skies, Floatzel screeched some very creative insults at her opponent. The dragon stopped abruptly, something flashing in its eyes as it ignored its orders and instead lunged straight towards Floatzel with a roar.

"Nice save there from May," the announcer said. "Sunny Day might have turned the tides of this battle, but Taunt prevented it from success! Things are looking steep for Robin after all!"

"Charizard, stay with me!" Robin shouted urgently. "Air Slash!"

Her Pokémon stopped mid-dive and swung its wings in a cutting motion, sending a sharp gust of air down at the sea otter; she was knocked down and hissed in annoyance.

"Waterfall, Floatzel!"

Quick as lightning, Floatzel whipped herself into the pool before shooting back up out of it, bringing a vertical column of water behind her. She smashed into the Charizard as it was preparing to pull off another Air Slash; water sprayed over the dragon in her wake, making it growl as its tail flame hissed and steamed, but Floatzel was already diving back down into the haven of the pool when it attempted to retaliate.

"Another Waterfall!" May ordered.

"Fly to dodge, but be wary!"

"Aqua Jet!"

Charizard was quick to begin its ascent, but Floatzel's Aqua Jet was even quicker; one second she was swimming circles in the pool, and the next she was tackling the Fire Pokémon in mid-air along with a hefty splash. This time Charizard was sure to be ready for her, however; ignoring the spray of deadly water, it smacked her aside with its tail, causing her to land in a heap on the ground instead of the pool.

"Solarbeam now!" called Robin.

"Get back in the pool to shield!" May hissed.

By the time the dazed Floatzel had pulled herself insistently back to her feet with an annoyed mutter, however, Charizard had already charged a beam of solar energy and fired it straight down at her. She screeched as it knocked her to the ground, vapour rising from her body as she twisted in agony; when it faded, she threw herself straight back into the water as if to relieve the pain.

"Waterfall!" May ordered without missing a beat.

"Air Slash, Charizard!"

Yet again, Floatzel sprang out of the pool, if not quite as quickly as before, and brought with her a stream of water. Her hesitation allowed Charizard time to pull off its attack, however, and it sent a burst of concentrated wind down at her, but it only slowed her down a little before she struck. The Charizard roared in pain as it was doused with water yet again, its ability to withstand the super-effective attacks clearly waning as it tired; it completely failed to counterattack this time, and Floatzel landed safely in the pool.

"Another Air Slash!"

"Aqua Jet followed by Ice Punch from above!"

The sea otter darted out of the water and smacked into Charizard's body like a wet rag, using its momentary paralysis to whip herself onto its back, her paw already grasping her Nevermeltice. When she smashed her fist between its shoulderblades, the dragon grunted in pain, but more importantly, it was still soaked with water, and the freezing cold of the Ice Punch handily froze that water into layers of ice.

Charizard's eyes widened in surprise as it tried to flap its tired wings, but the freezing around its shoulders made it difficult, and with Floatzel's weight dragging it down, it just couldn't keep itself airborne. With a panicked roar, it was sent descending straight down towards the pool, and Floatzel cackled with a victorious glee as they broke the water with a splash.

Robin Riverstone only looked on for a second as her Charizard was submerged, its tail flame bubbling furiously as it struggled to resurface while Floatzel persisted in dragging it down, before she pulled out a Pokéball. "Charizard, return," she said calmly as a red beam absorbed her Pokémon to safety, and the audience exploded into cheering before she'd even said the last word.

"A brutal tactic, but it worked!" said the commentator. "After an exciting match, May Victoria Wallace is the winner and will face Taylor Lancaster in the finals a week from now!"

Mark only half-heartedly joined into the cheering; it was a bit difficult for him to be thrilled about a Charizard being dragged into a pool, and he'd never been much for shouting and screaming over the outcome of Pokémon battles, anyway. But now at least May would get to face Taylor like she'd always hoped to and could become Champion while she was at it; she'd definitely be happy.

* * *

She wasn't. The moment they met again outside the Pokémon Center, she was already ranting.

"Can you _believe_ Tyranitar?" she began furiously. "Losing to a _Charizard_? I mean, no offense to the species of Charizard, but he's a _Rock-type_! And he got creamed! Didn't even get a single hit in!"

Mark was a bit too taken aback to reply, though in his head he could almost hear the speech Alan would be making if he were there. When he said nothing, she went on: "I mean, it was all because Charizard was running a speed-reliant dodging strategy and Tyranitar's never been very speedy, but he should have gotten a hit in several times while it was busy attacking and not dodging."

"Well, Charizard had a Fighting move," Mark said with an uncertain shrug. "And as you say, it had a strategy Tyranitar wasn't very well prepared to take on."

"Still," May insisted. "I thought I had the 2-0 in the bag, but now it just looks like your average win-thanks-to-luck-slash-opener-outprediction, which is pretty lame." She sighed in irritation. "Tyranitar's been disappointing me a lot lately, you know? It's annoying."

"Aren't you just expecting too much?" Mark said hesitantly. "I mean, the speed thing was really working against him, and we've seen Robin's Charizard dodging the most amazing stuff from slower Pokémon. Only reason Floatzel did so well is she's even faster – and you knew that; that's why you chose her for it after all. Plus, it all worked out anyway – you won the battle, and you get to face Taylor."

May took a deep breath, and Mark could see her relaxing a little. "I guess maybe he couldn't have done any better," she said after a moment. "No use complaining after the fact, at any rate, not when we have Taylor to worry about. God, I need a nap." She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Yeah, nap for me. You do what you like."

* * *

Most of the rest of that week went into training, strategizing and general preparations for the finals. Mark was there for most of it, feeling rather more invested in this battle than the previous since it was the finals after all and he really did want to see Taylor go down; he didn't often have much to offer in the way of suggestions, but his Pokémon sometimes did, and thankfully it had turned out there was more to May's battle preparations than just her marching back and forth and thinking aloud.

The fact Taylor had proceeded to the finals of the League had gotten considerable media attention, with a lot of public outcry about the fact someone most unhypnotized people viewed as something between an undeserving brat and a scumbag cheater was now a very serious candidate for Ouen Champion. Taylor himself had been interviewed a couple of times, always answering his questions with a bizarre sort of oblivious nonchalance, though there was a suspicious lack of direct accusations against him whenever he appeared in the media. May, on the other hand, had become the only remaining representative of fairness and justice in the world, with the public rallying around her in the hope she would beat him in the name of true Pokémon training.

May mostly found the attention irritating, though she did take satisfaction in the fact everybody apparently hated Taylor too. She refused to be interviewed, telling the journalists who approached her that she had better things to do, such as actually training for the battle (unlike _a certain someone_, said with an irritated glare). Mark figured that was probably a good thing; May's actual personality wasn't very conductive to being held up as a paragon of hope and justice.

On the evening of the day before the battle, before turning her Pokémon in for the pre-battle examination, May ran over the battle plan one last time, pacing in front of her team.

"They're stronger than you," she told the Pokémon bluntly as they listened in grave silence. "We'll have to accept that; we can't try to upstage them that way. Don't think the fact there are six of you and four of them is going to even it out by itself, either, because it won't. The advantage we do have is that he gets three switches and I get five. That's two extra favourable matchups I get to make, and I plan to milk that advantage for all it's got."

She turned around at the end of the line, the Pokémon following her with their eyes.

"So Raichu is going out first." She looked at the mouse Pokémon and he nodded nervously. "Taylor starts with something which, in all likelihood, takes him down, unless it's Feraltwo and maybe even then. But Raichu should be able to put a dent in it anyway, maybe even paralyze it. And then I can send out whoever is the best counter for it, and they should win. Taylor sends out a counter, of course, and it wins, and I send out another one, and so on. But ultimately, even after Raichu is probably beaten in the first round, I still have one extra Pokémon as a backup plan.

"But there's only one backup Pokémon, one extra counter, and there is no chance we can get another. There is no way any of you is going to beat two of his stupid super-clones in a row. That inherent advantage of two extra switches is all we get. And once he's whittled that headstart down, we can't have any more mistakes. We can't have any more losing with a type advantage."

She abruptly stopped in front of Tyranitar and gave him a hard, cold, silent glare. The dinosaur looked wordlessly down at the ground, though his expression remained the neutral it always was.

Again, Mark could almost hear Alan's protests, but he remained sitting where he was, saying nothing, if feeling a bit uncomfortable. In the end, Alan just wasn't there, and much as he would have liked to have been the sort of person who would call her out, he just wasn't Alan either. It was one instance, in a stressful situation, and surely it would be futile to try to argue it now? If she kept doing it, anyway, Alan would try to do something about it once they rejoined him.

"We can _not_ lose this battle," May went on, now pacing again, her voice becoming quietly fierce. "Either I become the champion or that little git does, and some idiot who goes around stealing Pokémon and begging his brother for overpowered clones and hypnotizing everyone who gets in his way should not win the League." She clenched her fist. "Taylor's been waltzing around here, reveling in his complete lack of talent and effort, acting like everyone who honestly works to be any good is weak and inferior, but we will show him that we're not weak. We'll show him that having a brother and a hypnotizing legendary clone isn't enough." She took a deep breath. "And while Taylor really needs to just die in a fire, the best we can do is beat him in a battle. So don't mess this up, okay?"

Surprisingly, Tyranitar was the first to nod emphatically, followed by the others voicing their agreement out loud. He didn't look hesitant to battle the way Lapras had been at all; it made Mark feel a bit better. May watched the chorus of her Pokémon with satisfaction and waited until they were quiet again.

"So see you tomorrow. Be nice to the drug testers – Floatzel, that means you. I want you all to give it all you've got in the battle. Any final comments?"

They looked at one another and shook their heads.

"No? Great. Until tomorrow, then."

May took out Pokéballs to recall them, and within seconds, the last shape of translucent red had been absorbed into a ball, leaving the two kids to find their way back alone in the darkness.

* * *

Mark lay awake in bed that night, something nagging at him uncomfortably.

"Chaletwo?" he muttered as he looked at the ceiling.

_"Mm?"_

"How come you don't intervene in stuff like that?"

_"Like what? I haven't really been listening to your thoughts. I've got stuff to think about on my own."_

"Like May being mad at Tyranitar for not having beaten that Charizard like it's all his fault. I mean, you were there since I was there, right?"

_"Mm. I saw that, but she's too valuable to our cause to start arguing with every questionable thing she does. It's no worse than any other sort of jerkish thing to do just because she's a trainer and he's a Pokémon."_

"I guess." A few moments passed in silence. "Chaletwo?" Mark then asked again.

_"What?"_

"What Entei and Suicune did," he began hesitantly. "How much do you know about that? How it works?"

_"It's really pretty straightforward. What did you want to know?"_

Mark shrugged. "Everything, I guess."

Chaletwo gave a mental sigh. _"Right."_ There was a short pause. _"So you have a soul. It resides on a separate plane of existence – the spiritual plane, or whatever you want to call it. The same place Spirit uses to shift in and out of the physical world."_

Mark nodded slowly.

_"Well, while you're alive, your soul is anchored to your body – your brain, specifically. When your brain stops working, that anchor breaks. The soul usually floats around in the vicinity for a little while afterwards – how long exactly varies – but eventually it disappears off to wherever it is the souls of the dead go. Free-roaming souls, before that happens, can be detected and communicated with fairly easily with even weak psychic powers. When I killed you, I grabbed your soul before it could go anywhere and anchored it to myself, if you will."_

"Huh."

_"And, well, it's pretty simple to anchor a soul to any physical object. You'd need psychic powers to do it to somebody else's, but a bit of the kind of power any legendary has will do to transfer your own, provided you know how to do it. Normally they wouldn't know, but I guess they talked to a Psychic legendary – heck, Mew might have told them for all I know. It's also not hard to create simple objects like gems, and those are pretty convenient for anchoring souls to since they're pretty durable. So that's what they did. And when their souls are anchored to the gems, they can't proceed to where the dead usually end up. They can't do much of worth either, mind you, but a psychic can detect them with some effort, communicate with them and resurrect them into any decently whole body, and they'll be alive and well. With their power stored away beforehand, they should be able to recover that, too, since power is always partly tied to the soul itself and they could pretty much pull it back from wherever."_

Mark took a moment to let this sink in. "So this... 'anchor'," he said. "Is it something like your physical link to me?"

_"Not quite. The physical anchor is more... well, physical. It allows me to channel a bit of the power of my body through you – for telepathy and the like – even though my body isn't technically there. That is also why that anchor allows the Destroyer access to my power. A soul-anchor wouldn't do that. Hence why Entei and Suicune are safe."_

Mark considered this. "What if you just had a soul-anchor to me?"

_"Wouldn't work, even if I could make one without being dead. I wouldn't actually be able to communicate with you or do anything useful without that physical access to my power. As I said, power is always partly tied to the soul too, but there's practically nothing you can do with that without a body to channel it through."_

"Just 'a body'? I mean, what about my body, if you're anchored to that?"

_"Well, that would be your body, already anchored to your soul. A second soul has no real business being there; at most it can cling on to some parts of your brain you're not using at the moment, maybe prod slightly at your subconscious. It can't really use the body; it might as well be anchored to an inanimate object in that regard."_

Mark nodded, feeling he more or less understood it. He hesitated before continuing with why he'd started this discussion: "So you and Molzapart never considered... doing it their way? Just saving yourselves with some soul gems and waiting it out?"

_"To be honest we never thought of it,"_ Chaletwo replied after a moment's pause. _"We knew of the basic idea behind soul gems, but we didn't view it as a reversible process, so we never considered it as an option."_

"What if you'd thought of it?"

_"We want to save everyone, not just ourselves."_

Mark pressed on. "What if you'd thought of it and Pokéballs didn't exist, or something, so you couldn't stop it altogether? Would you have done it?"

_"Who wouldn't?"_ replied Chaletwo, his telepathic voice turning defensive. _"What are you trying to prove?"_

Mark wasn't exactly sure, but continued anyway with newfound persistence. "What if you could preserve yourselves, in soul gems, or save everyone else, but not both?"

Chaletwo's reply was suddenly fierce. _"What's this sudden barrage of moral dilemmas about? Yes, I can sympathize with Entei and Suicune, if that's what you're asking, but it's no use wondering what we would or wouldn't have done in some hypothetical scenario. Here and now we're trying to save the world because it _is_ possible and we _don't_ have to sacrifice ourselves to do it, and that's what matters."_

"Entei seemed pretty sceptical of your attempt," Mark responded, his voice shaking with something that was not quite anger. "What if it doesn't work? What if we fail to capture all of them and the mad legendaries break your Pokéball and kill you? You have to have thought of that at some point. And sure, you hadn't thought of soul gems before – but now that you have, now that you know of a safe alternative that could guarantee your survival... don't tell me you haven't at least thought about it."

_"It's crossed my mind,"_ Chaletwo said after a pause.

"So what? Why did you decide to stick around anyway? Or are you just waiting for the right moment to tell us, _sorry, you have to go on without me_?" Mark found himself having gotten quite worked up by now; a flood of suppressed fears that had been boiling within him since the encounter with Entei was bursting out all at once. "Do you legendaries actually care one bit about the world? Or do you just live out your eternal existence thinking of mortal creatures as something to occupy your minds with while reminding yourselves how glad you are that you aren't them?"

_"Whether you want to believe it or not, Mark,"_ Chaletwo responded, clearly trying to be calm, _"I do care. And I'm not going to hide in a soul gem while you might need me. Don't speak of legendaries as if you know all of us just because you've talked to Entei. We all feel that fear when we realize we aren't as immortal as we thought, and I won't deny that it was a motivating factor for Molzapart and me, but otherwise our views and priorities and our ideas for how to deal with the War are different. We try to prevent it from happening with the help of humans; the Beasts of Johto put their trust in mortal Pokémon to save themselves; Mew seems almost suicidally content with the whole idea."_

Mark took a deep breath, feeling a bit better now, whether it was because of Chaletwo's words or just because he'd let it all out. "Wait, what?" he asked after a second. "Mew is what?"

_"Content with it. Flat-out refused to help us prevent it, apparently because we can't fight fate or something like that. It's stupid. I couldn't convince him to even try to save himself."_

Mark pondered this for a moment. He'd known it before, technically, but never really given any thought to it. "Huh. So Mew _is_ willing to die."

_"But not to save anyone else,"_ Chaletwo pointed out. _"He doesn't want the War stopped at all."_

"Mew didn't want you to tell anyone about the War, either," Mark thought aloud. "That's a bit odd, isn't it? Doesn't want to save himself, doesn't want anyone else saved, doesn't even want anyone to know what's coming..." Something horrible was creeping up on him. Mew couldn't be...

_"There's no way,"_ said Chaletwo immediately. _"He... he wouldn't have told us, or the Beasts, if... there's no way. I think he's just gotten a bit tired of life by now. He's two thousand years old, after all, and he's been kind of down pretty much the last twenty years."_

"I guess." Mark pushed the thought forcibly away. "You know what's funny? I was always under the impression Mew was pretty cheerful when I was little."

_"He used to be. Well, he was like this for a while after the last War, too; I think it was Chalenor's death. Then later, as he got over that, he slowly shed that and became his better known happy, playful self, all the way until... well, yeah, until around the time we started asking him about the War twenty years ago."_ There was a slightly awkward pause; Mark could feel Chaletwo's momentary guilt faintly in the back of his mind.

"Maybe there was some sort of an effort to stop the last War too that failed horribly?" Mark suggested.

_"He never mentioned anything like that to me."_

Mark shrugged. "Maybe Mew doesn't tell you everything."

Chaletwo didn't respond, but Mark could tell he'd been thinking the same thing. There had to be something Mew knew that they didn't. And though he was doing his best to convince himself Chaletwo was right that Mew couldn't be the Destroyer (how could the Creator and Destroyer be the same, anyway?), he couldn't shake the unsettling possibility from his mind.

He waited a moment, wondering if Chaletwo would say anything; he didn't. Mark sighed and pulled the comforter over his head.

It was a while before he managed to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

His stomach felt fluttery as he ate breakfast with May. Thoughts about Mew and souls and the Destroyer swarmed around his head like flies, and he found himself having little appetite. May was eating just fine, but she was silent and focused and seemed a bit paler than usual.

They didn't really speak until May looked at her watch and stood up from the table without warning, preparing to leave. Mark realized with a jolt that it had to be time for her to get her Pokémon and unconsciously sprang to his feet after her; she stopped and turned back towards him.

"Um… good luck," he said awkwardly, trying to seem cheery and positive. "Hope you win. Champion, huh? I mean, that'd be cool." He tried to smile, feeling a bit stupid and not sure if May actually appreciated good lucks at all.

At first she just looked at him blankly, but then the corners of her mouth turned up into a genuine, if faint, smile. "Thanks, Mark," she replied. "I appreciate it."

And with that she turned back around and hurried out the door, leaving Mark to finish his breakfast alone.

* * *

The audience stands were already nearly full when he got there; Mark was thankful for the numbered seats as he pushed past what seemed like hundreds of people to find his place. May was already waiting on the trainer stand further away from him, but the closer one was empty; Taylor had a tendency to show up kind of late to his own battles, something May had of course noticed and raged about several times.

She wasn't raging now, though. She was just standing there, flicking her gaze around the audience, fiddling with her Pokéball necklace, and shifting on her feet every now and then. Mark realized with an unsettling feeling in his stomach that the confidence she had oozed when she'd battled him was completely gone. She wasn't just being cautious; she really wasn't sure she could win. And from her, that was so unusual as to be almost frightening. May wasn't _supposed_ to look nervous.

The squabbling going on in the audience fell suddenly quiet as the door to the near trainer stand opened and Taylor stepped through it with a self-assured grin. He waved cheerfully to the audience as he closed the door.

Somebody a couple of rows above Mark yelled "You suck!" Somebody else booed, and other people joined in; within seconds, it seemed half the audience was doing it in unison. Taylor's grin vanished abruptly to be replaced with a frown, and he turned his gaze over towards May instead, grabbing a Pokéball from his belt. She took a ball from her necklace as well.

"Hello," came the announcer's voice over the PA system. "I'm Robert Witham, your on-site commentator for the Ouen League, and… I will _not_ be commenting on this match."

All around the audience stands, people looked up in surprise.

"This is an act of protest against the League's outrageous double standards and disregard for its own rules in allowing Taylor Lancaster to get this far. I refuse to participate in this ridiculous charade, even if it costs me my job. That will be all. Thanks."

There was a burst of cheering after this announcement. Mark saw May looking around the audience stands in confusion; this had to look very odd to someone who couldn't hear the commentator. Taylor, on the other hand, ignored it completely, still just standing there turning over the Pokéball in his hand, until finally there came the order for them to ready their Pokéballs.

"Go!" they shouted simultaneously, throwing the balls they were holding. May's ball released Raichu, as planned; Taylor's released a huge, menacing, blue bipedal alligator with a grossly enlarged lower jaw and fangs, a prominent hump on its back, and sharp, blood-red spikes growing along its spine. It was pretty much a Feraligatr but _more_, and as it faced the mouse Pokémon – Raichu looked truly tiny next to it – it let out a threatening growl that made Mark shudder.

On the status screen, he saw a victiorious grin flash across May's features for a second: the opening matchup was as ideal as she could have hoped for. But there was no time to celebrate, and without hesitating, she gave the first command of the battle: "Raichu, Thunder Wave!"

The mouse Pokémon crouched down, holding his lightning-bolt-shaped tail above his body, and began to charge electricity in his cheeks. The status screen close-up showed his curved ears perked up, his eyes wide and shining: whether it was his monstrous opponent or just the stakes of the battle, he was clearly nervous, and it couldn't have helped when Taylor ordered, "Earthquake, Feraltwo!"

"Finish the Thunder Wave!" May called immediately, and Raichu bravely kept his focus as the clone stomped a heavy foot upon the ground. A wave of electricity left him a split second before a powerful ripple passed underneath him; as the Thunder Wave settled into Feraltwo's muscles, Raichu fell down, discharging a shower of sparks.

"Charge Beam," May ordered immediately. Her Pokémon stood up with relative ease, and there were surprised murmurs in the audience; only Mark noticed Raichu spitting out the stem of the Shuca Berry he'd been keeping in his mouth before he began to charge electricity again.

"Earthquake," said Taylor, visibly annoyed that Raichu hadn't gone down in one hit. Feraltwo, however, was having a hard time moving thanks to its paralysis, and as it was growling and struggling to budge its foot, the mouse managed to send a concentrated beam of light shooting into its body. It looked pathetically unaffected, but Raichu's fur was sparking with added power, and May was quick to order another Charge Beam.

As the second attack hit, Feraltwo was knocked backwards a little and grunted in pain; the power-up resulting from the charging was clearly working. A second afterwards, however, it regained its mobility, and Taylor smirked as it roared and stomped its foot.

"Detect!" May called quickly, and with a flash of heightened awareness in his eyes, Raichu nimbly skirted around the Earthquake waves, dodging them all with an effortless ease that made Mark feel a bit bad for Jolteon. He knew Detect had disadvantages of its own and Raichu had learned to dodge Earthquakes the hard way too, but something about it just felt too easy compared to how Jolteon struggled to do it using his natural speed and reflexes.

"Another Charge Beam!" May called as the last ripples passed the mouse Pokémon. The audience cheered as Raichu landed completely unharmed and began to charge his body with electricity yet again.

Taylor frowned, clearly realizing he couldn't just brute-force this. "Feraltwo, use a Haze!" he called just as Raichu released a beam of electricity that made the alligator Pokémon visibly twist in pain. By now, Raichu's fur was all standing on end, crackling with the static electricity left over after each Charge Beam attack; he had to have gotten at least twice as powerful as he originally was, and if Feraligatr pulled off that Haze, that advantage would be lost.

May seemingly realized the same, as she quickly ordered, "Get one more in!"

Raichu charged for a moment while Feraltwo struggled against its paralysis, but just before he fired the beam, the Feraligatr clone regained its mobility and – stomped a foot on the ground. Before Raichu had the chance to recover and Detect, an Earthquake was already speeding towards it. The mouse Pokémon managed to leap over one or two ripples, but wasn't as agile as Jolteon without the assistance of a move like Detect and was quickly caught in the attack. Sparks flew from his body as he collapsed on the ground and shivered violently.

Taylor's status screen image was smirking victoriously, and Mark had a sudden powerful feeling that this was all planned, somehow. Taylor's clones, what with being all contained in mind-controlling Clone Balls, could hardly have the initiative of their own to decide to use one attack instead of another. Judging from May's murderous, outraged stare towards her opponent, she agreed.

Down on the arena, Raichu struggled to stand up, loose sparks still flying from his body. He seemed to have lost the static charge he'd had previously. "Grass Knot," May ordered quickly.

"Another Earthquake."

"Detect!"

It didn't really matter which command "counted", because Raichu never could stand up; Feraltwo managed to move almost immediately this time, and as more Earthquake waves passed under the fallen Electric Pokémon, he dropped back on his stomach, defeated.

There were uncertain whispers and sounds of annoyance in the audience. One person somewhere cheered but quickly fell silent again. May, pressing her lips together, took out a Pokéball and recalled Raichu in silence.

"Floatzel, go!" she called as she threw out her next ball. "Bulk Up!"

The sea otter materialized on the arena and wasted no time before she crouched down low, strengthening her mucles while growling threateningly at her opponent.

"Feraltwo, Focus Punch!"

"Quick Attack!" May countered immediately.

The Feraligatr clone closed its eyes and curled its clawed hand into a fist that began to glow with white energy. Floatzel spent a moment finishing her power-up and then sprang up, darted towards the other Pokémon and tackled it in mid-air. The alligator grunted, losing its focus; the white glow disappeared from its fist and it opened its eyes.

Taylor clenched his own fist in annoyance. "Giga Impact!"

"Dig, Floatzel!"

Mark saw a grin flash across May's face as Feraltwo lunged forward, preparing to throw its whole body at Floatzel. The sea otter sprang up, cackling, and then pretty much dived into the ground, a flurry of dirt surfacing in her wake. The clone missed her by several feet and crashed onto the ground next to the hole, only to be hit as Floatzel emerged from the ground underneath it. It groaned as the otter dug her way out by its side, rubbing her fist in discomfort: Feraltwo couldn't be very pleasant to punch.

"Earthquake!" Taylor ordered.

"Bulk Up and then Quick Attack, Floatzel!" May called.

Floatzel crouched down immediately to strengthen her muscles, but Feraltwo was having difficulty standing up; its mountainous form shook with effort as it tried to push itself back to its feet, but its arms gave way before it had gotten itself upright and it had to try again, clawing desperately at the ground with its legs. Mark supposed the bulk the genetic modification had added to it might not be quite matched by additional strength, and the paralysis couldn't be helping either.

The sea otter sprang back up, darted towards the alligator at a great speed and tackled it down. Feraltwo roared in pain, snapping its jaws in her direction, but Floatzel had already retreated to a safe distance away.

"Quick Attack again!"

Feraltwo made a second effort to stand up that might have eventually succeeded if Floatzel hadn't come smashing into it a split second later. The creature was knocked down yet again and stopped moving.

Taylor waited for a second before he took out the Clone Ball to recall it. He did so in silence, warily watching Floatzel, who cackled victoriously as Feraltwo was absorbed into the Pokéball beam. Mark noted properly for the first time now that the sea otter was completely unhurt, if probably tired; she hadn't been struck with a single attack while battling the alligator. That was pretty impressive, wasn't it?

"Raitwo, go!" Taylor called as he threw out his next pick.

The fact Mark had just seen May's Raichu made the clone that formed look all the more disturbingly off. Again, it was considerably bigger, to the point of being noticeably taller than Floatzel, and darker in color. Primarily, however, its ears weren't Raichu's almost butterfly-shaped ones; they were a more Pikachulike conical shape, and as it let out a deep, decidedly unmouselike growl, thready blue lightning sparked between the yellow balls set on its eartips.

"Thunder Wave!" Taylor ordered as his Pokémon assumed a fighting stance.

"Taunt!" May called quickly.

Floatzel barked something about brainless man-made clones, a malicious grin on her face, and Raitwo ignored its own command in favour of hissing loudly at her.

Taylor frowned. "Thunderbolt."

His Pokémon was only too eager to obey, electricity crackling in its cheeks and ear-balls before it sent a bolt of lightning towards Floatzel. She made a respectable effort to dart out of the way, but the lightning was too fast for it to be anything but hopeless; she screamed in pain as she was stopped in her tracks and an electrical current coursed through her body before she fell to the ground.

"Dig!" May blurted out.

"Another Thunderbolt!" Taylor countered.

Raitwo began to charge again, but Floatzel managed to stand up and dive into the ground in a spray of dirt, dodging the attack narrowly.

"Thunderbolt again."

Floatzel came out of the ground directly underneath her opponent. This time, she emerged explosively, dirt again flying all around as both Pokémon were thrown into the air. Even while airborne, however, Raitwo managed to discharge the Thunderbolt it had prepared, and Floatzel was shocked in mid-air before she tumbled back to the ground, her body charred and limp.

May recalled her silently as Raitwo landed on its feet, bruised but not looking very hurt. She placed the Pokéball back on her necklace and didn't hesitate before she took out the next.

"Flygon, go!" she called. "Use Earthquake!"

The antlion Pokémon screeched in challenge as he emerged on the arena, but wasted no time before giving his thin wings a powerful flap that sent Earthquake waves rippling across towards Raitwo. It made no effort to dodge, instead just staying down on all fours and letting off sparks as the attack hit; both it and its trainer looked unnervingly unfazed.

"Raitwo, Magnet Rise!"

May glared seethingly at Taylor as his Pokémon closed its eyes and slowly levitated a few inches into the air. Mark knew why: she'd been trying to teach Raichu that move for ages, but he'd had trouble with it without having a good reference or tutor and eventually she'd given up and taught him Detect and Earthquake-dodging instead. Mark could only guess Raitwo had been genetically modified so that it would come naturally to it.

"Supersonic, Flygon!"

Flygon's wings vibrated to produce a sound only the Pokémon could hear. Raitwo winced, teetering a little bit in the air as its concentration faltered, but stayed airborne.

"Raitwo, Hyper Beam!"

May shot a disdainful glare across at Taylor. "Flygon, Rock Slide!"

Despite its confusion, Raitwo successfully fired a huge, bright beam of energy straight at Flygon, hitting him in the chest. He cried out in pain as he was blasted all the way into the wall below May's trainer stand; she looked down, her grip on the railing tightening. For a moment Mark worried Flygon had fainted already, but then he sprang up with a growl and sent chunks of rock raining down on the recharging Raitwo.

"Earthquake, quick!" May called. Raitwo was now buried under a pile of rocks with too little energy to pull itself out; as Flygon sent ripples across the ground between them, a shower of sparks emerged from the gaps between the boulders, indicating a successful hit. May gave a satisfied grin on the status screen.

Taylor grimaced. "Another Hyper Beam, Raitwo."

"Roost," May ordered, and Flygon settled gratefully down on the ground and closed his eyes to be bathed in a healing glow.

It took several seconds for Raitwo to recover enough energy to pull itself out of the heap of rocks. Once it had, it began to charge an orb of light in front of its mouth, but seemed to get distracted halfway through so it fizzled away into nothing. Clearly the confusion was doing something, at the very least.

"Try again," said Taylor impatiently.

"Flygon, stick with Roost!"

The Dragon-type nodded, continuing his rest for a few more seconds. This time Raitwo did manage to fire the beam, and it smashed straight into Flygon, sending him crashing into the wall again.

"Rock Slide!" May called sharply.

"Another Hyper Beam!"

It took a few moments for Flygon to pull himself up, and in that time Raitwo had already recovered somewhat, but nonetheless he had the time to send more boulders flying in Raitwo's direction that buried the oversized mouse Pokémon under again.

"Earthquake!"

Flygon was just pulling up when the pile of rocks exploded and a beam of energy came blasting straight at him. He cried in surprise, but did manage to produce a weak Earthquake before it hit him; after he'd smashed into the wall yet again, he didn't stand up. On the opposite side of the arena, however, Raitwo's battered body was also lying motionless under the remains of the Rock Slide.

Mark quickly went over the situation in his head as both trainers recalled their Pokémon to some cheering from the spectators. This meant three of May's Pokémon had fainted so far and two of Taylor's – exactly half of each team. So far, they were even.

"Go!" shouted both May and Taylor in unison as they threw their next Pokéballs.

Out of May's ball came Skarmory, who gave a metallic cry as he focused upon the opposing creature. Mark identified Taylor's pick immediately as a Scizor clone, though it was of course bigger and darker, had wings much bigger and sturdier than those of an ordinary Scizor, and curiously, though its right arm was a fairly Scizorlike pincer, the left one ended in a curved, metallic scythe.

"Skarmory, Taunt!"

"Sciztwo, Swords Dance!"

Unfortunately for May, Sciztwo was unnervingly fast; its idea of a Swords Dance was mere seconds of swinging its mismatched arms, and it had already finished it by the time Skarmory had registered the command and spat an insult at it.

"Agility!" May called.

"Superpower," Taylor ordered lazily, and Sciztwo darted towards Skarmory, swinging its pincered right arm before it smashed it into Skarmory's body. He screeched in pain as he was thrown downwards; Mark winced as he could see a clear, visible rounded dent where the blow had hit.

May looked rather shocked and pale at this, but once Skarmory had recovered his flight and was zooming through the air to gain speed, she was quick to give another order. "Skarmory, Swords Dance!"

"Crabhammer!"

Incredibly, though the Agility had improved Skarmory's standing considerably, Sciztwo was still quicker. Again, it zoomed through the air, water solidifying out of the air around its pincer, and smashed it into Skarmory's body. The steel vulture screeched, but recovered quicker this time and began to spin around in the air to power himself up.

"Skarmory, Drill Peck!"

"Another Crabhammer, Sciztwo!"

Could Scizor even learn Crabhammer? Mark guessed that the ability to use the move had been engineered into it somehow; it just seemed too bizarre to watch it conjuring water out of thin air as it darted towards its opponent. Skarmory dived to meet it, still spinning rapidly, and drilled his metallic beak into Sciztwo's torso as it bludgeoned his wing with its claw. With his wing bent out of shape, Skarmory went spiralling downwards, taking the Scizor clone with him, and they landed in a heap on the ground.

"Skarmory, Roost!" May ordered. The steel vulture stood wearily up and hurriedly hopped a short distance away before settling down on the ground and closing his eyes. A blue glow enveloped him, and slowly the dents began to mold themselves back to their original shape.

"Superpower, Sciztwo!"

May's eyes widened for a split second as the insectoid Pokémon stood up, ignoring the wound in its chest, and darted at the vulnerable Skarmory, swinging its pincer. The bird screeched in pain as his body was crushed against the ground, the metal crumpling together like paper. Mark didn't even notice May pulling out the ball before Skarmory's form turned a translucent red and was recalled to the safety of his Pokéball.

There were whispers in the audience. On the status screen, May actually looked truly upset; she spent a moment staring at the ball before she minimized it and reattached it to her necklace, her face pale. A second passed as she looked across at Taylor, her former steely glare conspicuously gone.

"Blaziken, go!" she called all of a sudden, her expression hardening again as she flung a new Pokéball into the arena. "Sunny Day!"

"Sciztwo, Crabhammer!"

With its frightening speed, the clone darted forward even before Blaziken had fully materialized, gathering water around its pincer. It smacked it straight into Blaziken's head, and he screeched as he was knocked down, but was nonetheless remarkably quick to recover, turned his beak towards the sky and let out a loud crow. Immediately, the sun intensified greatly, and within moments the arena was sweltering hot.

"Crabhammer again," said Taylor warily.

"Heat Wave, Blaziken!"

Sciztwo zoomed forward again, but it was having a much harder time summoning water from the air now; steam rose around its pincer as it tried, and this made it stop and hesitate long enough for Blaziken to ready his attack. Super-hot air rippled towards Sciztwo, and as it hit, the clone's metallic armor glowed white-hot; it bent and twisted out of shape, distorting Sciztwo's form into a something half-melted and nightmarish, and its wing membrane burst into flames, burning up completely. Mark shuddered as the Heat Wave faded and the creature shook its head, quickly summoning more water to cool its mangled body that instantly turned to steam.

"Blaze Kick!"

"Sciztwo, use a... an Aerial Ace," Taylor ordered.

The Scizor clone was not quite as fast as before, but nonetheless managed to take a leap towards the sky while Blaziken's feet flared up, and it delivered a precise slash with its scythe as it came down. The chicken let out a cry of pain as blood squirted from his shoulder, but he still kicked Sciztwo away easily. It was thrown flat towards the ground and landed on its back.

"Blaze Kick again, while it's down!"

"Sciztwo, Quick Attack!"

At breakneck speed, Sciztwo rose again and knocked itself into Blaziken's body, but by now it only had enough force for him to stagger backwards a little, his legs trembling oddly. He lunged forward again, and a blazing foot immediately thrust Sciztwo down and held it there until it stopped struggling.

Taylor recalled the charred heap of metal that was his Pokémon, and as soon as it was gone, Blaziken gasped for breath and collapsed onto all fours. He must have been struggling just to keep himself standing there towards the end; Mark winced at the thought. Blood was still dripping from the Pokémon's shoulder.

There was dead silence in the audience as everyone looked at May. She looked around for a moment and then took out Blaziken's Pokéball to recall him without words.

Taylor had already taken out his next ball and didn't even wait for May to ready hers before he threw it and called, "Go, Mewtwo²!"

As the tall, skinny figure of the legendary clone began to form, the corners of May's mouth turned up into a manic grin; she began to chuckle quietly as the light faded from its form, and she threw her final Pokéball amid crazed-sounding laughter. Mark knew what she was thinking: in all those matches they'd seen him use Mewtwo², it had only ever used Psychic moves, as if Taylor had never bothered to teach it anything else.

"Tyranitar, go!" she shouted as the rock dinosaur began to take shape on the arena. "Crunch!"

"Psychic," Taylor ordered as the light faded from Tyranitar's body, and May looked incredulously across at him as Mewtwo² obediently held its arm forward and gave a little flick of its wrist. And Tyranitar was thrown straight into the wall under May's trainer stand.

She stared down at him for a second as the audience whispered amongst themselves, her face reddening.

"You can't do that!" she shouted furiously at Taylor as Tyranitar rose to his feet with a roar. "_You can't do that!_"

Taylor just smirked as Tyranitar lunged towards his opponent. "Another Psychic."

Another flick of Mewtwo²'s bony, two-fingered hand, and Tyranitar was sent flying to the side. Mark's seat shook as the dinosaur crashed into the wall below the audience stand.

"Do something, Tyranitar!" May yelled heatedly. "You can't let a Psychic slap you around!"

"Another," Taylor ordered.

Tyranitar was pushing himself to his feet and gritted his teeth as Mewtwo² moved its hand again, and incredibly, this time he wasn't sent flying. He strained against the force that was trying to move him and miraculously managed, very slowly, to stand up, to wild applause from the audience.

"Not… weak!" he growled as he took a struggling step; it took a moment for Mark to realize in amazement that these were the first intelligible words he had ever heard Tyranitar say.

"Go Tyranitar! You can do it!" he shouted in excitement with everyone else as the Pokémon grinned triumphantly and turned towards Mewtwo².

Taylor sighed. "More power," he ordered, and Mewtwo² swung its whole forearm, easily blasting Tyranitar into the wall on the other side of the arena.

There was a crushing silence as it dawned on everyone that from the beginning, there had been only one way this battle could go. On the status screen, May clenched both of her fists tightly as she watched Tyranitar struggle to stand. At Taylor's command, Mewtwo² telekinetically threw him back at the opposite wall. He tried to get up again, and Taylor ordered another Psychic; after being smashed head-on into the other wall one more time, Tyranitar didn't move.

May stood there for a moment, fists trembling, as the audience broke into whispering, talking, arguing and then shouting. Finally, she held forward Tyranitar's ball and silently let it absorb him before turning straight around, exiting the trainer staind and slamming the door behind her.

"The winner is Taylor Lancaster," said the very reluctant voice of the announcer as some of the audience booed in protest, and Mark looked quickly around. Taylor was grinning like an idiot as he recalled Mewtwo², one fist triumphantly in the air. Most people were staying in their seats; the awarding ceremony was still left, but Mark didn't really want to see it and he was kind of worried about May.

He stood up and squeezed hurriedly past the squabbling crowd to exit the stadium.


	54. Away

**Chapter 53: Away**

He caught up with May just as she was exiting the Pokémon Center; apparently she'd finished healing her Pokémon already in the time it took for him to get out. For some reason she was also holding both of their backpacks; she must have retrieved them at the trainer lodge in the meantime.

"Let's just go," she said without greeting him or looking him in the eye, her voice quiet as she handed him his own bag. "I don't want to be here when the reporters start looking for me."

She was obviously upset; Mark wasn't quite sure what to say to her and just followed behind her as she walked towards the outside gate, hurriedly flipping his nametag over to show his photo before they went through. The gatekeeper woman squinted at them as they passed; a television inside the guard booth was showing Taylor happily shaking hands with the very reluctant-looking Champion of the Old-Timers' League.

"Hey," the woman called after May, leaning out of the booth, but she quickened her pace without answering and Mark had to sprint to catch up with her.

"You did great, you know," Mark tried as May showed no signs of being about to stop; they seemed to be heading towards the mountains where they usually trained.

"No, I didn't," May responded irritably without looking at him. "I screwed up with Skarmory. Roosting was a terrible idea when it was using a Fighting move, but I wasn't thinking. And Feraligatr can't even learn Haze. I shouldn't have believed it until I saw it."

Mark didn't know quite how to respond to that. "Well…"

"But it's not like it mattered anyway, because even if I'd done everything _perfectly_, Mewtwo² would _still_ just have thrown Tyranitar around like a bloody bouncing ball and there's nothing I could've done about it, so either way I never could have won."

"I'm sure everybody out there thinks of you as the real Champion," Mark said. "I mean, Taylor basically cheated. Everybody knows that."

"If they think that, they're _wrong_!" May said fiercely, turning around. "There is no second place in a knockout tournament. Any one of the trainers he beat could be better than me. The fact I happened to be the last one to battle him is _meaningless_, you understand? God, learn some basic math."

She turned quickly around again and marched on; Mark hurried to keep up with her and quietly decided not to try to start another conversation.

* * *

May had stopped suddenly in a bit of an open area that Mark had guessed must be a spot she'd used sometime when they were training separately and announced they would camp there. He'd not felt like arguing.

Now, after they'd set up the tent, they were sitting around their campfire in silence. It was only the afternoon, but the approaching autumn was making the days get colder, and Mark was grateful for the fire. He'd rather be at the warm trainer lodge reading or drawing or watching TV, of course, but he couldn't just leave May out here alone, and so he stayed, wondering restlessly if it would be horribly insensitive to send out his Pokémon to talk to them. (It probably would be.)

He looked at her. She was staring fixedly into the flames, curled up with her arms wrapped around her knees to keep warm. Her expression was empty and faraway, devoid of any particular discernible emotions, but she still obviously felt like crap. He wished he could help her, somehow; it fleetingly occurred to him to give her a hug or something, but he couldn't imagine she would appreciate the gesture.

He wondered idly what she was thinking. Was she ashamed? Hating Taylor? Blaming herself? Blaming everybody _but_ herself?

That thought sparked something in his mind. "You're not mad at Tyranitar, are you?" he asked warily.

She shook her head resentfully. "It's not his fault Taylor had a bloody Psychic Pokémon that could affect Dark-types."

Mark nodded. Okay, so she was hating Taylor.

"What a _cheat_," she went on, picking up a rock and tossing it angrily away. "Overpowered clones are just a nice challenge, but Mewtwo²? Why does he even bother _having_ the other ones?"

Mark shrugged. There was silence.

"So... when's the ferry tomorrow again?" he asked after several minutes.

"Two o'clock."

"Shouldn't we contact Alan and arrange a meet-up?"

"Yeah, we should." May seemed somewhat cheered up by the suggestion and immediately reached over for her backpack; she shuffled around for her Pokégear for a moment before she found it. She pressed some buttons, and there was a loud dial tone; Mark presumed she'd set it to speaker.

_"May?"_ came Alan's voice after just a few beeps.

"Hi." May actually smiled a little; calling Alan had clearly been a good idea.

"Hi, Alan."

_"Mark too? Oh, awesome. I was just going to call you guys, but I seem to have lost May's number. Where to start? Well, first of all, I was watching your battle on TV earlier – you were great!"_

Her smile faded abruptly; she didn't reply.

_"May? I mean it – I'm in the Scorpio City Pokémon Center, and there were a bunch of people here watching when it was on. Everyone was rooting for you. You should've heard them all crying foul when Mewtwo²'s Psychic worked on Tyranitar, or the applause when he got up and seemed to be resisting it. Nurse Joy even came and turned off the television before the award ceremony, and people cheered. Everybody knows you should've won."_

"Can we please not talk about the battle now, okay?"

_"What?"_ Alan sounded honestly confused. _"Um, okay, I guess? Well, we found Rainteicune and explained it to him, so he's caught and that's all fine now. You, um, you got Polaryu all right, I trust?"_

"Yeah," Mark replied. "But May had to use a Master Ball, so we've only got one left now. Also Entei, sort of – it's a long story."

_"Huh? Uh, you'll tell me about that when we meet up, I guess. You were going to take the ferry, right?"_

"It's at two o'clock," May said. "Dunno when it'll be over there exactly – make an educated guess?"

_"It's arriving in Merville, right?"_

"I was thinking, though," Mark said, "since we sort of decided to go up to the Eastern Cliffs – the Color Dragons might be there – and through the Ouen Safari, maybe we should get off on the other side of Aquarium City, on Route 308. I think I heard it lets off passengers there too."

_"Okay by me,"_ Alan replied. _"So I'll just be waiting for you, then?"_

"That'd be nice," May said.

_"Great. I'll see you then, I suppose. I should probably get going."_

"Bye," Mark called.

"Bye," May said kind of half-heartedly. She looked at the Pokégear for a moment before she turned to put it back in her bag, and then she inexplicably sprung to her feet.

"Taylor!" she shouted, and for a moment Mark was sure she'd gone mad, but then somebody with very familiar dark red hair stepped into his field of vision from where he'd been obstructed by a rock.

"Hey," said Taylor, in a curious but altogether not unfriendly tone, walking towards them. "What are you doing here?"

"I want a rematch," May said with cold determination.

Taylor looked blankly back at her. "But I just beat you."

May gritted her teeth. "I know that. I want a rematch. Same as before, except no Mewtwo². Just your other four clones against my team of six. Okay? You've healed, right?"

The other boy gave her a doubtful look. "But you know you don't get to be Champion even if you..."

"Yes, I bloody know that!" May snapped. "Are you going to battle me or not?"

Taylor shrugged. "Uh, sure?" He paused. "But then you send out first. You're the challenger."

May nodded shortly and they each stepped back a bit to form a clear area between them. Mark made himself comfortable where he was, which gave him a decent view; though he wasn't quite sure why she was bothering, it actually would be interesting to see if she could beat him with Mewtwo² out of the picture.

"Tyranitar, go!" May called after a moment of thought, and the dinosaur materialized in front of her with a powerful roar.

Taylor grinned, clearly not in any hurry to get out a Pokéball of his own. "I remember this guy," he said. "You've got to admit, it was pretty funny when Mewtwo²..."

Tyranitar cut him off with a low, threatening growl as he took a few steps closer.

"Heh." Taylor looked up at the towering figure of the Pokémon, taking a nervous step back. "Easy there."

Mark wondered idly if Taylor had ever been this close to a large, real Pokémon that wasn't mind-controlled by a Clone Ball in his life before. Tyranitar took another step towards him, and Taylor shuffled back so fast he tripped over a rock and fell onto his back; May seemed to be enjoying the spectacle immensely.

"Get him off me!" Taylor yelled in a panic, crawling frantically backwards as Tyranitar continued to advance towards him. "Get him off me!"

"Fine," May said, rolling her eyes. "Tyranitar, get back here."

But Tyranitar didn't get back there. He took one more step towards Taylor, who was screaming in terror by now, and another, and then pinned him down with his foot.

May's eyes widened, her hand fumbling for the Pokéball she'd already attached back to her necklace.

There was a sickening _crack_ as Taylor's ribs gave in to Tyranitar's weight, instantly silencing his scream. Dark blood trickled out from underneath his body, quickly turning into a puddle of red.

"Oh, God." Mark looked away, trying to restart his brain and fight back his nausea. May was staring frozenly at Tyranitar, one hand still clutching her Pokéball necklace. The Pokémon looked over at her, like he was waiting for something.

"Wh... why would you..." she asked weakly.

There was a pause. "You said he should die," Tyranitar said in something that sounded like genuine confusion. "You said to show him we're..."

Mark stared at him in limp disbelief. Tyranitar lowered his head ever so slightly, looking at May. "You're not happy?" he asked, his unpracticed, still-childish speech somehow making it worse.

"You just _murdered_..." May covered her mouth and turned away as if she were about to throw up, but she didn't; she just took a few shaky breaths and didn't turn back around again. Still watching May carefully, Tyranitar lifted his foot and put it down beside Taylor's body (Mark made every effort not to look at it but there it was and _oh God_).

"I don't understand," the Pokémon muttered after a moment. "I thought you'd be happy and then you wouldn't be mad that I lost."

May whirled back around to face him. "I'm not mad that you lost, okay?" she said, her voice unnervingly close to breaking. "It wasn't your fault. It was just Mewtwo². That's why I challenged him to a rem..."

Her voice died abruptly and she quickly turned her back to him again, her shoulders shaking. Tyranitar's gaze stayed on her. "You said he should die so I..."

"Well, you can't just kill people," she said as she turned around yet again, an almost hysterical anger entering her voice now. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What kind of trouble we're in?"

Tyranitar hung his head miserably but said nothing.

"We have to talk to the police," Mark muttered numbly from where he was sitting.

"The police? We can't talk to the police! What are we going to tell them? 'My Tyranitar decided completely on his own to kill this guy I have every reason to have a grudge against and there was no way I could have stopped him even though I had his Pokéball'?"

Mark looked away, unable to answer.

"Or are they going to ask Tyranitar himself, and he'll tell them _I said he should die_?" May paced off towards a nearby rock and leaned against it with one hand for a little while as she rubbed her forehead. Tyranitar glanced uncomfortably at Mark.

May finally turned back towards him. "Look, we have to get the hell away from here before somebody finds us here with the body, okay? Help me pack up the tent. We don't want any evidence that we were here."

On a normal day, it would have unnerved him how quickly she was planning a cover-up, but as it was, he just stood up and got to work, finding some strange comfort in being told what to do. Everything was back in their bags within minutes, and then it was just putting the fire out, throwing the half-burnt sticks off in different directions and covering the ground where it had been with loose gravel.

May stared over the area for a moment and then nodded. "I think this is the best we can do," she said quietly. Taylor's body was still lying there on the blood-soaked ground, jarringly out of place alone in the barren landscape. Neither of them had been able to bring themselves to touch it.

"Are we going back to the trainer lodge?" Mark asked, the thought of being around other people strangely nauseating.

May shook her head. "We'll camp somewhere else." She spent a moment seemingly lost in thought before she finally looked up at Tyranitar. "You need to go away."

He looked back at her, uncomprehending. "Not with you?"

"No, not with me." She looked down. "I'm releasing you. Go and find some wild Tyranitar to live with."

The Pokémon stared at her. "But I won't…"

"It doesn't matter," May said, her voice shaking a little but still firm. "You killed someone. I don't know if they can trace it back to you somehow, but if they can, I can't still be carrying you around. Wild Pokémon don't get prosecuted."

Tyranitar looked mortified. He stared at May for a moment longer and then let out a bone-chilling wail before he turned around and fled, eventually blending into the rocky landscape and disappearing from sight.

Mark turned to May and noticed with a jolt that there were tears running down her cheeks as she stared after Tyranitar. As she realized he was looking at her, she quickly wiped her face with her sleeve and then turned around, heading off without a word.

Something compelled Mark to take one last look at the body before he followed her. The boy's face was frozen in horror, his frightened stare now fixed forever on the sky above; he didn't look like a League Champion, or a dangerous opponent, or a cheating scumbag. He just looked like a scared little kid who would never get to walk or talk or laugh or do anything again.

Mark shivered and ran to catch up with May.

* * *

She led the way to another reasonably open space where they silently set up camp all over again and made a new fire. They sat around it without saying a word for a long while.

"Where are we?" Mark asked at last, mostly just to say something.

"It's my first training spot," May answered without looking at him. "Then later I switched to the one where I trained for the finals."

Silence. "I thought that was where we were before."

May shook her head. "That was Taylor's."

Mark looked uncomprehendingly at her, his brain still largely frozen. "Taylor's?"

"I was hoping he'd come there," she said. "So I could get a rematch."

Taylor's greeting echoed in Mark's mind: _What are you doing here?_ They'd been there waiting for him, ambushing him in his own training spot. Something about it made him start to laugh; he felt sick for doing it.

There was more silence for a while.

"He was such a selfish, incompetent, cheating little git," May said quietly, her voice unconvinced and empty of vitriol.

Something broke within Mark. It was a curious feeling: in a flash every nauseating detail of everything that had happened hit him like a freight train, and then he found himself heaving over a puddle of vomit, not remembering properly how it even got there. May was watching him, not saying anything.

He wiped his mouth and sat back up a bit further away. "You went there to his own training spot," he said, trembling. "And he came, probably to escape the angry mob that must have been assaulting him outside the stadium... and then..."

She looked away without answering.

"And what's with Tyranitar? He'll kill people because he thinks it'll make you happy? To make you not mad at him? What the hell? How did he get to thinking like that?"

"I don't know!" May almost shouted, sounding broken and desperate. "I just don't know, okay?"

"Well, I know," Mark went on, his voice rising. "He's probably really young and just didn't know any better than to live for pleasing you and take you literally when you cheerfully tell everyone Taylor should die in a fire, and you've never given him enough thought to even see it, let alone correct it – but really, for God's sake, he never said a word in his life until today, and nobody wonders if there's anything wrong with him?"

Nobody had wondered. Neither had he. Neither had Alan. He was sure May would immediately seize upon that, but she didn't. She just sat there, looking away, saying nothing, and that deflated his bubble of anger a little. He took a deep breath, feeling slightly calmer but not really any better.

"It doesn't matter anymore," May said shakily after a moment. "He's gone."

Mark wanted to argue with that, to tell her of course it still mattered because they had made him that way and failed to do anything about it, but he couldn't admit that to himself, not now. "Somebody is going to find out," he said, his voice flat. "We're not going to just walk off and get away with this."

May looked up, her gaze steeled. "Why not?"

"We're just kids!" He tried to fight back the tears, but they formed anyway. "We're not criminals. How are we supposed to pull off a perfect cover-up? We'll get caught. It's _murder_. We'll..."

"_We_ did not do this!" May interrupted him heatedly. "This is not _our_ fault!"

"What's your point? You said yourself we can't tell the police what really happened because it sounds too implausible that we didn't have anything to do with it. We might as well..."

"First of all, _you_ had nothing to do with it," she said, cutting him off, but she didn't follow it with anything; she stared at the fire, curled up against the cold, and Mark suddenly didn't want to say anything either.

Silence lay thick for a few tense moments.

"Do you want to tell the police?" May asked quietly.

She was right. Mark had nothing to do with it and there was no reason he ought to fall under suspicion for anything. _He_ had nothing to lose by going to the cops. And wasn't it May's fault more than anyone else's, anyway?

Wasn't it the right thing, really?

_"If I may intrude,"_ said a telepathic voice, making Mark jump; he'd forgotten Chaletwo even existed. _"Nobody's calling the police on anyone here. I realize this is a big deal for humans and I can't pretend to really understand how you feel right now, but... we need you. We need both of you. You can't let this get in the way of your mission. I hate to say this, but mortals die. It was an accident. It was nobody's fault. Deal with it and move on. You have more important things to worry about than the death of a boy you never liked anyway."_

Mark stared at the fire, a growing pit in his stomach. May was looking at him, her face pale.

_"And if the police seem to be connecting it to you, Molzapart or I should be able to do something about it in an emergency. This is not the end of the world."_

"Molzapart," Mark realized, glancing at May. "What if he just performs a mass memory modification? Makes everyone forget about Taylor? Then maybe..."

_"Unfortunately, that was the compromise we made to be able to send him with Alan,"_ Chaletwo replied with a sigh. _"He'll have gotten too weak for something of that scale by now. But like I said, if suspicion falls on you, we can fix it."_

Mark took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling a bit better. May, on the other hand, didn't look like she felt better at all; she was motionless, her empty gaze still fixed on the fire.

_"And before you ask, no, I couldn't have resurrected him. The body was too damaged."_

The image of Taylor's crushed body and wide, staring eyes flashed across Mark's mind; he shuddered before something struck him that he had been too numb to register while they were there. "Should we have taken his Pokéballs?" he asked. "I mean, because of Mewtwo²?"

"Pokéballs transmit signals that can be tracked," May said without looking at him.

_"I doubt they'd release him, anyway,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Odds are Rick will take him back and he'll be as safe as the other legendary clones in the Cleanwater Gym. Which is to say, not perfectly safe, but it can't be helped, and at our best estimates the start of the War should be well before the start of the next high season of trainers, so there shouldn't be a lot of Gym battles going on around that time."_

Well before the start of the next high season of trainers. Mark had always known there was a deadline, but hearing it stated like that made it all too real.

He sighed. They really did have more important things to worry about. And paralyzing as it was to think about it, there was nothing more they could do about Taylor. He was dead. Tyranitar was gone and would hopefully be better off in the wild with others of his kind. They would not be suspects.

"Chaletwo's right," he said, not quite sure to whom. "We have to move on. We have no other choice." He looked at May and clenched his fist unconsciously. "We'll take that ferry tomorrow, meet up with Alan and go to the Eastern Cliffs like we planned. Everything is going to be fine, and then we can just forget this ever happened."

May just continued to stare into the flames, not saying a word.


	55. Reunion

**Chapter 54: Reunion**

They packed up silently the next morning and May led the way in the direction of the ocean. The ferry was anchored a short distance offshore; they flew over to it on Charizard and Skarmory and spent the journey back to mainland Ouen without talking.

Mark had explained what had happened to their Pokémon the previous night. Floatzel had been completely unable to understand what they were so upset about, and Mark had the feeling several others felt the same even if they didn't voice it (Scyther had just looked at Mark, his gaze unfazed and faraway; Letaligon had been shifty and impatient, though May's silence seemed to unnerve her enough that she didn't complain; Mutark had spent the whole speech flicking her tail around or pouncing on flowers save for taking an abrupt interest when he got to trying to get words around the murder itself). Others, such as Jolteon, had just looked nervous and miserable. Mark had tried to reassure them that everything would be okay and they wouldn't have to worry about it, but they'd been no less quiet and uncomfortable. Mark himself was doing his best to believe his own words, but he still couldn't get rid of the hollow feeling in his chest or that little pang of horror in his stomach he felt when he thought about it.

He was relieved when the ferry finally pulled in at the Route 308 dock around six in the evening. Only a handful of passengers were getting off, since most of the trainers from the League were heading home and even Green Town, technically closer to here than Merville, was more easily accessible via the long route than through the wild grasslands of Routes 308 and 309. Alan was waiting alone by the pier and waved enthusiastically as soon as he spotted them; they quickly made their way over to him.

"Welcome back," Alan said as he hugged them both. "How have you been? We have so much to talk about. Hey, are you hungry? They serve hamburgers at that place across from the Pokémon Center."

"Yeah, I'm kinda hungry," Mark replied, and Alan marched off in the direction of the little road shop he'd pointed to. He seemed a bit on edge; Mark wondered idly what was up with him.

Alan turned to May as they walked. "You're being quiet," he said. "Are you still upset about the finals?"

"Yeah, I guess," she replied without looking at him.

"Well, Taylor cheated," Alan said. "You can't think like that forever. You were awesome, no matter what you say. Come on, let's get burgers."

They were the only customers. A bored-looking blonde teenage girl behind the counter was watching cartoons on the television, not having bothered to even turn the volume down. May sat down at the first table they passed and told them she wasn't really hungry and would just have some of their fries; the boys went to place their orders at the counter.

"Has she just been like that since the battle?" Alan whispered when the blonde girl had retreated to the kitchen to make their hamburgers.

Mark's stomach lurched in momentary panic. Should they tell him? _Could_ they tell him? May had acted like it was all about the battle. Should he too? Could they really go on without ever telling him about it?

"Pretty much," he said before he'd really reached a conclusion, surprising himself with how relatively convincing he managed to make it sound.

Alan sighed and shook his head, then turned to return to their table. Mark followed him, glancing at May; she was staring unseeingly at the television.

"So," Alan said when they'd sat down, looking straight at Mark. "Chaletwo. Why the hell didn't you tell us about Thunderyu, Volcaryu and Polaryu?"

Mark could feel the legendary's alarm in the back of his mind. _"What do you mean?"_ Chaletwo replied defensively.

_"You know what he means!"_ came Molzapart's telepathic voice, cold and harsh. _"Three dragons of Ouen, huh? Funny how nobody else knew about those. Funny how _I_ didn't know about those, and supposedly I was working with you. I wonder how it would happen that you'd know about three legendaries sealed away somewhere that nobody else knows about."_

"What?" May asked, looking between Mark and Alan and seeming utterly lost.

_"Oh, I'm sorry,"_ Molzapart said, _"I guess he never told you either that he..."_

_"I made them,"_ Chaletwo interrupted. _"Yes, I made them. I was young and stupid. Don't think I don't regret it."_

"That explains a lot of things," May muttered.

_"And when were you planning to tell us that, you idiot?"_ hissed Molzapart. _"All this time, they've been cleaning up your mess! They've made no actual progress – oh, save Suicune, whom they _killed_! What is this?"_

_"About that,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Suicune – he didn't die. Not really. He's using a soul gem. So is Entei. We found him and he explained it to us. They're both in the gems now."_

_"Soul gems? Oh, what the – don't change the subject. You made three legendaries. Why didn't I know? Why didn't they know?"_

_"Does it really change anything?"_ Chaletwo asked, exasperated. _"I told them the dragons existed. They caught them. We don't have to worry about them anymore. Why does it matter where they came..."_

"It matters," Alan said loudly, but quickly caught himself and lowered his voice again, "because, Chaletwo, for God's sake, we're on a very important mission here and we need there to be trust. How can we work together to save the world if we have to constantly wonder if there's something you're not telling us?"

_"I'm not hiding anything else,"_ Chaletwo said, with a subtle emphasis on the 'I' that made Mark all too aware of the irony of the situation. _"And Mark knew that I made the dragons. If he'd decided to tell you, there's nothing I could have done about it, but he didn't."_

Mark flinched under Alan's scandalized gaze. "What? It's my fault now?"

"Well, why didn't _you_ say anything?"

Mark thought back to that moment; it felt like years ago. "Chaletwo didn't want me to, and I guess I kind of sympathized," he said. "Molzapart should have known, maybe, but where the dragons came from isn't really anything that matters."

"I agree with him," May said suddenly. "It doesn't change anything. We already caught the dragons. Arguing about it now isn't helping anyone."

Alan threw up his arms in frustration the way he liked to, but Molzapart wasn't so easily silenced by a majority vote. _"Damn right, I should have known,"_ he said. _"Yes, the dragons have been caught, thankfully, but that doesn't change that keeping it secret was wildly irresponsible and represents both a monumental lapse of judgement and a breach of trust. Why is Chaletwo still leading this expedition again?"_

_"Because, Molzapart,"_ Chaletwo replied irritably, _"you still have powers that could be of some real value if you conserve them in a Pokéball, whereas I'm currently at my most useful blabbering instructions in some kid's head. But if you want to switch, be my guest."_

There was a stunned silence while the waitress arrived at their table with the hamburgers and gave them an odd look as she laid the food down. Mark could only imagine their conversation sounded horribly weird to anyone outside the range of the legendaries' telepathic speech.

Neither Molzapart nor Chaletwo spoke again even after the girl was gone. "Right," Mark said after a moment that seemed to make it clear they'd dropped the subject. "So, uh, let's eat?"

Alan silently picked up his hamburger and took a big bite out of it, and Mark hesitantly picked up his own. May reached listlessly for a fry, but froze when it was halfway to her mouth, staring; Mark turned around to see an image of Taylor on the screen of the still-running television.

"Controversial League Champion Taylor Lancaster was found dead on Champion Island this afternoon," the anchorwoman was saying, and Mark's stomach twisted itself into a knot. "Lancaster was last seen using his genetically-engineered Pokémon 'Mewtwo²' to teleport out of an aggressive crowd of protesters after his victory in the finals of the Ouen League yesterday. During the League, he attracted nationwide heat for his use of so-called 'super-clones' engineered by his brother Richard Lancaster of the Cleanwater City Pokémon Gym, especially the aforementioned Mewtwo²."

Mark looked at Alan; he'd stopped chewing mid-bite, now also staring at the TV screen.

"Though the investigation is still underway, it appears twelve-year-old Lancaster was killed by a large Pokémon, most likely a Tyranitar. Wild Tyranitar are known to live in the area, but police will not rule out the possibility of human involvement at this time."

The anchorwoman looked solemnly at the camera for a moment, just long enough to seem appropriately respectful, before she continued with a professional smile: "Also don't forget the exclusive live interview with Richard Lancaster coming up later, only on O-7! The man who has refused to speak to the press since the beginning of his mysterious and controversial career finally opens up in the wake of his brother's tragedy! Don't miss it."

Alan swallowed as the anchorwoman started to talk about something else. "Whoa," he said. "That's..." He looked unsurely at May, who was pale and wide-eyed, looking like she'd seen a ghost. "I can't believe it. I mean, nobody wanted him to win the League, but..."

Nobody spoke for a moment; in the background, the television blared with cheerful commentary on the still-ongoing Sinnoh League.

"I wonder what's up with Rick," Alan went on when the others didn't say anything. "He never took an interview in his life, and he chooses now of all times to change his mind? And the media just jump on it without question to get their exclusive scoop? That's kind of sick."

But Alan remained glued to the screen; May, too, was staring at it as if mesmerized. Mark had a horrible feeling about this; he wanted to ask the girl at the counter to change the channel or turn off the TV, but how could he do that without explaining why? And anyway, she was watching it intently herself.

"And now, for what we've all been waiting for," the anchorwoman said at last after a couple more inconsequential reports. "A world-first – O-7 secured an exclusive live interview with the mysterious Cleanwater City Gym leader, Richard Lancaster! Over to you, Heather."

They cut to a woman standing outside a nondescript house. "Thank you, Carla. Here we have the man himself, for the first time ever in an interview – uh, let me first say, I'm very sorry for your loss."

The camera panned to Rick. He looked terrible and not really fit for television; his hair was uncombed and messy and his expression was disturbingly haunted and restless. He didn't respond to the reporter, instead looking unnervingly straight at the camera with bloodshot, staring eyes.

"Uh, Rick?" the reporter asked off-screen after a second.

There was still no response. Rick blinked, not taking his eyes off the camera lens, and then said quietly, "Whoever did this to my brother..."

In the middle of the flashes of sickening memories assaulting his mind, Mark couldn't help somehow feeling sorry for the man. Rick lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment, swallowing before he looked up again.

"...I'll fucking kill you."

Without warning, Rick's expression turned utterly psychotic. "I'll find you and strangle you with my own bare hands, you hear me?" he snarled, looking straight into Mark's eyes; the reporter stepped into the frame, wide-eyed, making a frantic cutting motion in front of her neck with her hand. "I'll tear your..."

The image abruptly cut back to Carla the news anchor, now wearing an expression of panicked alarm. She took a second to regain her composure, then cleared her throat. "Unfortunately, the interview with Richard Lancaster has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. We apologize for the unexpected profanity in this report."

A knot of irrational fear had lodged itself in Mark's stomach. He looked quickly at May; she'd turned very pale, but didn't say or do anything. Her eyes remained fixed on the TV screen.

"Well, that was... interesting," Alan said after a moment. "At least that explains why Rick was willing to be interviewed all of a sudden."

There was silence. Alan looked between Mark and May.

"Are you guys all right?" he finally asked.

"We're perfectly fine," May replied suddenly, stuffed the fry she was still holding into her mouth and reached for more off Alan's plate. Mark forced himself to continue with his hamburger too, and after looking suspiciously at the two of them for a few seconds, Alan also turned his attention to the food. They finished eating silently while Mark debated with himself how much of his burger he could leave behind without making Alan ask more questions; he ended up forcing down about two thirds of it, still feeling sick. Eventually they paid up and exited the building, and Mark was relieved for the fresh air.

"So," Alan said, "are your Pokémon all healed up? Because then we could probably just set off north now, without having to stop at the Pokémon Center."

"No, let's go there," May said without looking at him. "I need to release a Pokémon."

"Wait, what?" Alan asked in confusion, but she was already walking towards the other building. He looked at Mark as if hoping for an explanation; Mark avoided meeting his eyes and hurried after May.

"You mean another one of your Pokémon asked to be released?" Alan called as he followed them inside. May didn't answer and walked straight up to the PC by the wall. There was nobody else there at the moment; even the nurse wasn't present at the counter.

"Tyranitar?" Alan asked in puzzlement as she quickly navigated the menus to deactivate the dinosaur's Pokéball for good. "Was he unhappy?"

"No," May replied without looking at him as she placed the ball on a Pokéball holder on the machine.

"Why would you release him? You'd better not be blaming him for losing against Mewtwo², because..."

"I know that wasn't his fault," May said, her voice shaking a little. "He had to go. I couldn't keep him around."

Alan looked blankly at her, then at Mark, then back at her, and then all of a sudden his eyes widened. "Wait," he began. "Wasn't Taylor killed by a..."

He looked desperately at Mark, his eyes begging for some innocent explanation. Mark couldn't bring himself to lie; with a pang of guilt, he looked away.

Alan took a horrified step back. "You... oh, God."

"It was an accident," May said, finally turning away from the computer. Her voice was still shaky, but she kept her expression remarkably calm. "I didn't like him, but I would never, _ever_ actually want somebody dead, okay?"

"Accident?" Alan repeated, sounding truly worked up. "How does your Pokémon _accidentally_ attack the boy who beat you in the League finals? What is _wrong_ with you?"

_"It wasn't their fault,"_ Chaletwo said with a telepathic sigh. _"The Tyranitar attacked him of his own accord. She tried to recall him but was too late. Now, as I said to them, you have more important things to think about than this boy. This isn't a big deal."_

"People being murdered is a big deal!"

Alan looked at Mark with his fists clenched, his breath shaky; his expression asked a hundred accusing questions. The look of betrayal in his eyes alone made Mark avert his gaze, unable to face him.

_"Sorry, Alan,"_ said Molzapart reluctantly after a second, _"but I have to agree with Chaletwo. This doesn't affect your mission. There's no benefit in dwelling on it."_

"But what about the police?" Alan protested. "What about Rick? We were just watching him threatening his brother's murderer on live television!"

_"As I told them, directing the police's attention elsewhere if they start connecting the dots shouldn't be too hard,"_ Chaletwo said. _"And how could Rick possibly know what happened or who was involved? He doesn't even know it wasn't a wild Tyranitar. He was just angry and wanted there to be a culprit."_

Alan took a deep breath and shook his head. "You are unbelievable," he said. "We're just supposed to carry on like nothing happened?"

_"Preferably."_

Alan looked at Mark, then at May, his expression wretched and miserable. "I guess we don't have a choice," he said finally, turning away. "Come on. Let's go."

As they followed him out of the building and headed north, Mark couldn't help having the creeping feeling that Alan would never trust them the same way again.


	56. Unprepared

**Chapter 55: Unprepared**

The journey north along Route 308 was awkward but uneventful. They barely exchanged words with one another on the way, only speaking when they encountered a wild Pokémon and decided who should battle it. The evening stretched on as the sun sank below the horizon, and when Alan finally suggested they set up camp, Mark was relieved. Somehow, today with all its dull waiting and routine and silence had been even worse than the day before.

"So," he said by the campfire when they were halfway through their silent dinner of canned beans, "it's the Eastern Cliffs tomorrow."

May and Alan nodded unspiritedly.

"You think the Color Dragons'll be there?"

"No," said May. Alan just shrugged.

"But just in case they are, how are we going to do this?"

There was silence.

"I don't think we'll get there until tomorrow evening," Alan said after a moment. "We'll have to either sleep there or try to find them in the night."

_"If they're there,"_ Chaletwo said, _"looking for them in the night would be good. During the day there'll be people around."_

Mark paused to think. "Okay," he said, "so we'll be, what, flying by the cliffs, entering the caves...?"

_"Sounds like that would be best,"_ Chaletwo said. _"The Charizard can both fly and illuminate. Then, if you find them, aggravate them and try to lure them out and onto open ground. The fliers can try to keep them from just retreating a safe distance out towards the sea while the others try to overwhelm them as quickly as possible."_

"How many of them would be there?" May asked, looking at Mark.

"I think that magazine talked about two," he replied. "That could be a bit harder than what we've been doing, if we have to take them both on at the same time." He looked unsurely at May and Alan.

_"Well, your Pokémon have gotten stronger, haven't they? Entei was a fluke, powered up by moves before we got there, but I'm sure you could take on two unprepared legendaries by now, especially all three of you together. After all, they've been getting weaker too."_

"Just our luck, huh?" May said. "When our task is _supposed_ to be getting easier, they gang up."

_"Better than if you'd faced them before the League, when they'd have slaughtered you."_

They finished their dinner and then cleaned up without talking. As they were laying out their sleeping bags, Alan suddenly broke the silence.

"Why would Tyranitar want to kill Taylor, anyway?"

_Oh, no, not more,_ Mark thought and held his breath, deciding quickly to pretend not to have heard him to avoid getting involved. At first it seemed May had decided the same; there was a heavy silence for several seconds.

"It was my fault," she said quietly all of a sudden. "He was just a... a kid, and he thought I meant some things I said. He thought he was doing it for me."

A moment passed. "God," Alan then said, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "You ruined him. All that battling and training and no chance to develop a sense of right and wrong beyond what you like and what you don't – I can't believe I didn't see it."

May didn't say anything.

"I mean, I knew it wasn't healthy for them," Alan went on grimly, "but I stupidly thought nothing terrible would come of it as long as they knew they had a choice. Guess I was wrong."

"I know it was my fault, okay?" May said, her voice trembling a little. "Cut it out. You're not fixing anything."

Alan sighed and crawled into his sleeping bag, facing away from them. He didn't respond, and after a moment May silently entered her bag as well. All Mark could do was follow suit and discard all hope that tomorrow would be less awkward than today.

* * *

As it turned out, it was even worse. Alan wouldn't even look at May, and she hardly said a word all day, even just shaking her head when Mark tried to get her to battle the wild Pokémon they came across.

They reached their destination around seven in the evening. Even in his current dreary mood, Mark had to admit the place was pretty spectacular; the humongous cliffs were dotted with holes and caverns of every shape and size and stretched seemingly endlessly along the eastern edge of the island that was mainland Ouen, while curious pillar-like rock formations stuck out of the sea nearby, scattered randomly in the shallow ocean below. In the far west, the sun was setting, casting the cliffside in shadow that promised only to deepen as the night went on.

There was still a smattering of tourists around, so they ate dinner and then hung around waiting after letting the Pokémon out. Mark brought out his sketchpad and then sat in the grass drawing Charizard as the Pokémon slept. He felt nervous but not excited; the low odds of anything being there combined with the uncomfortable atmosphere made it hard to anticipate it positively, and he found himself wishing half-heartedly that their search would turn up nothing.

_"I know it feels like that, but we need to find them,"_ Chaletwo's voice said in his head. _"If they aren't here, we're out of our only clue about where to go next."_

"I know," Mark muttered. He adjusted the pencil in his hand and made curved, sweeping strokes for the shape of the tail flame.

_"That's, uh, a nice drawing,"_ Chaletwo said after a moment.

Mark looked up. "What?"

_"It's good. Looks like him."_

"Are you trying to make me feel better?"

_"Well, it _is_ a good drawing, isn't it?"_ Chaletwo replied defensively.

Mark doubted Chaletwo would really know anything about drawing, but stupid as it seemed, it actually made him smile. "Thanks," he said and started to shade the dragon's body.

He managed to forget about the time while finishing the picture, and he was in the middle of going over the outlines again when Alan said, "I think everybody's gone."

Mark looked up and realized he'd been squinting at the paper to see for a while; Charizard's tail flame helped, but the sun had sunk below the western horizon and the actual cliffs were shrouded in deep shadow. "I guess we should get searching, then."

He stood up and shook Charizard's shoulder gently to wake him while looking around for the others. Jolteon and Letaligon were having a practice battle a short distance away; Sandslash and Dragonite were talking elsewhere. Scyther sat near the cliffside, staring out at the dark sea. He wished he could have let Gyarados out, but Chaletwo had been too worried he would do something drastic to destroy the soul gems if he was left unattended.

"Everyone," he called, taking out the Water Pokémon's ball, "get ready."

Before long, the non-fliers had gathered above the cliff, and Skarmory, Scyther, Dragonite, Flygon, Vicky and Butterfree hovered a short distance out over the ocean. Gyarados waited grimly in the sea below; Mark could feel a hint of Chaletwo's stress whenever he took his eyes off him, but the sea monster remained obediently still and made no attack on the gems.

"Okay," Mark said nervously, "I guess me and Alan should fly down there checking out the caves, and May is ready up here to command the other Pokémon, and then, uh, hopefully we find them and get them to come out."

May nodded distractedly, looking over the group of Pokémon. Alan just silently climbed onto Charlie's back, and Mark followed suit, sighing; he hoped this wasn't what the rest of their quest would be like. They really didn't need being at odds with one another on top of everything else.

Charizard took off the ground once Mark was ready, and they flew down in front of the great wall of rock. The dragon's tail flame illuminated the rough surface, and Mark could make out a fairly large cavern a bit below. He looked towards Alan, who was hovering on Charlie a short distance away.

"I'm going to check out this one," he called. "Maybe I go in this direction and you go in the other, so we won't be searching the same cave twice."

Alan nodded shortly, and Charizard carefully landed in the opening of the cave, narrowly fitting his wings inside. He swung his tail around to illuminate the cavern properly; it was only a small, empty space.

Mark sighed. "Oh, well. Let's try the next one."

They entered one cave after another, finding some of them were small and shallow, some were longer tunnels, but all were empty or housed only irritable Wingull and Pelipper. Charizard got sprayed with a few Water Guns, and that combined with all the taking off and landing was quickly taking a visible toll on his endurance: soon he was panting heavily, and when he made a clumsy landing in yet another empty cave that got his wing badly scratched on the surrounding rocks, Mark was getting really worried.

"Are you all right? We can go back up and I can get you an Ether or something, if..."

Charizard took a few exhausted breaths. "This would be easier if you weren't on my back," he said finally without looking at him.

"Oh!" Mark quickly dismounted the Pokémon. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize..."

"It's not just that," Charizard muttered. "With the sea just below and all these cramped rock caves and..." He shuddered. "I'm not exactly in my element here."

"You could have told us," Mark said sheepishly, feeling like a jerk. "If you'd said you didn't want to..."

Charizard shook his head. "No, I didn't think it would be that bad. It's not your fault."

"Well, let's just get back up to the others, then. It's not like there's anything here." He sighed. "You okay for one final flight?"

The dragon nodded, and Mark climbed onto his back again, as carefully as he could manage. With a grunt of effort, Charizard took flight and they ascended up to the cliff, where he half-crashed on the ground.

"You too, huh?" Alan said; Charlie was lying on his back beside him, catching his breath. Mark nodded and winced, hurrying to his backpack to get an Ether. The spray slowed down Charizard's rapid breathing, but he still followed Charlie's example and rolled over onto his back to rest.

_"Okay, that's a problem,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Without the light, it'll be hard to explore the caves, so it's harder to use the other fliers. Can't you just go down without your trainers and make rest stops every now and then?"_

Alan shook his head decisively. "We're not torturing them any further with this. We can do it early tomorrow morning, when the sun's up and actually lighting up the cliffs."

Most of the Pokémon murmured in agreement; it was getting really dark by now and only Vicky and Mutark (for a split second, Mark actually wondered why Tyranitar wasn't there, and it made him a little sick to realize it) were well-suited to battling in the dark.

Chaletwo sighed. _"Fine. But it has to be early, before any humans come along."_

The Pokémon by and large chose to stay outside of their balls for the night, and the kids were about to light a campfire and go to sleep when Chaletwo suddenly said, _"Where's Gyarados?"_

Mark jumped and hurried over to the cliffside, but the sea monster was waiting still in the ocean below, barely visible in the shadows.

"Gyarados," Mark called, "we're going to wait until tomorrow. It's no good like this."

"What? We're giving up?" Gyarados growled. Since their encounter with Entei, he had completely stopped using his gift for speaking human, preferring instead the menacing roars and snarls natural to his species, which made him even more intimidating to talk to than he'd been before.

"Yeah, for now," Mark answered, trying to sound more disappointed than he was. "It's too dark and the Charizard are having a hard time flying between the caves like that, so..."

"I'll stand guard tonight," Gyarados said immediately. "I'm not tired."

_"You can't just leave him out,"_ Chaletwo said to Mark. _"He's just looking for an opportunity to break the gems."_

_He's had the opportunity for a while now,_ Mark thought.

_"Well, if he tried anything, he'd draw attention to himself,"_ Chaletwo argued. _"Unless, of course, everybody's asleep."_

Mark hesitated. Part of him agreed with Chaletwo. But somehow, a larger part really wanted to finally extend a white flag to Gyarados.

"Promise me," he called, "that you won't try to destroy the soul gems."

Gyarados looked at him and nodded. "I won't destroy them."

Mark looked at him for a moment. "All right," he said and prepared to turn around. "Wake us if you spot any dragons."

_"Have you lost your mind?"_ Chaletwo hissed. _"You can't trust him. He already tried to kill Suicune once, for crying out loud!"_

_What if he does destroy the gems?_ Mark thought resentfully. _Is it that bad? Suicune was using him._

_"Of course it's bad! Death is bad! You can't just say somebody's a bastard and deserves to die and therefore it's okay!"_

_That's not what you said when Taylor died,_ Mark thought.

Chaletwo didn't answer for a moment. _"Well, mortals die anyway. Sooner or later, it doesn't make that much of a difference. It's different when you wouldn't die in the first place."_

_Of course it makes a difference,_ Mark replied angrily. _When you only live less than a hundred years, the time you have means something. Taylor could have grown up and done something with his life. Is Suicune going to do anything meaningful with the rest of _his_ life that he hasn't already done in the past thousand years?_

_"Obviously we can't exactly understand one another's point of view here,"_ Chaletwo said after a moment, _"but surely you get what I'm saying about Suicune. We can't just leave Gyarados to destroy the soul gems."_

Mark paused. _I don't think he's going to destroy the soul gems._

_"Are you kidding? Of course he's going to. He hates Suicune. Why wouldn't he?"_

_He said he wouldn't,_ Mark replied. _Gyarados does his own thing, but he's never been outright disloyal. I don't think he would go against his word, once he's given it._

_"You're mad. How can you trust him now?"_

_Feel free to get out of your Pokéball and watch over him yourself._

Chaletwo gave a telepathic sigh. _"Well, I guess you'll hear it if he starts anything and then I can just attach the soul to something else. Don't sleep too far away."_

Mark rolled his eyes and went back to the campfire. This time they got through the whole process of laying out the sleeping bags without anybody saying a word, and he was fast asleep less than half an hour later.

* * *

All of a sudden, there was a hellish roar. Mark bolted awake in a momentary claustrophobic panic before realizing that he was in his sleeping bag, the sun was coming up, and the roars were Gyarados calling frantically for them to get up.

May and Alan had started awake too, and without words the three of them started upright and sprinted towards the rising sun. The Pokémon, who had been sleeping scattered around the area, were already running and flying towards the cliff, and as they approached, a gigantic shape rose into their field of vision. Metallic green scales glinted in the morning sun; leathery wings flapped up and down; a long, lizardine tail swished behind the slender body.

_"It's Dragoreen!"_ said Chaletwo. _"Everybody into position, now!"_

"Vicky, Mean Look!" Alan called, and the Misdreavus, tired-looking and squinting against the sunlight, fixed her gaze on the giant dragon. Dragoreen whirled around and flapped her wings powerfully to fly up, but seemed to bump against an invisible wall there and faced back towards the Pokémon with a high-pitched screech.

A bright red beam hit her from the back, knocking her forward, and she turned again, firing a bolt of lightning towards what had to be Gyarados. Mark hurried towards the cliff edge; the sea monster was collapsing in the water with a final roar of pain. He recalled him quickly and sent out Sandslash instead.

Dragonite was already flaring with blue flames and dived into the legendary, knocking her down. Meanwhile, Floatzel raised a column of water and smacked into her belly. Jolteon and Raichu sent a Thunder Wave once the other two were a safe distance away, and Dragoreen's wingflaps became rickety and irregular just as Flygon and the two Charizard all came at her with flaming claws to slice into her side.

The legendary Pokémon screeched again and flared into blue flames of her own. She shook off Charizard, Charlie and Flygon harshly and then rushed into Floatzel, Dragonite and the two Electric Pokémon, sending them all flying. Even as she did, however, Mist the Vaporeon blasted her with an Ice Beam and Racko flicked an orb of Grass energy towards her.

"Charizard, Scyther, Letaligon, be ready with physical attacks when the Outrage is over!" Mark shouted, and the Pokémon nodded in affirmation. Butterfree, Spirit and Vicky collaboratively fired a huge Shadow Ball as the fire disappeared from Dragoreen's body and she landed on the ground with her powerful hind legs, looking disoriented. Charizard and Scyther dived straight at her to attack, and Charlie and Skarmory followed suit. Letaligon raced towards her with her blade glowing. Floatzel gripped her Nevermeltice in her paws and shot at the dragon with an Ice Punch. Dragonite dived at her again in a blast of dragon flames. Mark watched as Dragoreen howled in pain, and he felt a twinge of guilt: they were already overwhelming her completely with sheer numbers. It was almost too easy.

Dragoreen managed to flare up in another Outrage and knocked into Dragonite, sending him flying; he landed harshly on the ground, fainted. As Mark recalled him, the legendary did the same to Flygon and Floatzel, and the former was knocked unceremoniously into the grass to be recalled by his trainer. Jolteon and Raichu fired a collective Thunderbolt, and Dragoreen crashed into the ground with a moan of pain.

"We're doing it!" Mark called to nobody in particular as Diamond the Rapidash, body blazing, smashed into the fallen dragon. "We're winning!"

Letaligon charged towards Dragoreen, but all of a sudden the legendary opened her mouth and breathed out a cone of fire that engulfed her assailant. Letaligon screamed in pain but continued anyway, smashing her white-hot body into the dragon's. Dragoreen roared and sent a Thunderbolt at Floatzel, who finally succumbed to unconsciousness. But at the same time, Charizard and Charlie were diving at her with flaring Dragon Claws, Skarmory was spinning in a Drill Peck, Sandslash had at some point gotten onto her back and was slashing at her metallic green scales with all his might. And Dragoreen was trying her best just to stand up. They really were about to take her down.

She let out one last high-pitched screech, and suddenly there were two more shadows rising up from the cliffs.

The great red-and-gold shape on the left sent a stream of fire down towards the ground, engulfing Dragoreen and all of the Pokémon around her. And following it came a bitter, icy cold wind with a flurry of snow, along with a cry of challenge from the glacial white dragon on the right.

_"Damn it!"_ Chaletwo hissed. _"Raudra and Puragon too? Where did they come from?"_

Mark's eyes widened. "Charizard, Jolteon, Letaligon! Take the white one! Sandslash, Scyther, the red one!"

But they didn't get up; only Charizard flew weakly towards Puragon. The others lay charred and frost-coated where they were, unsconscious.

He recalled them in horror, looking wildly around; Butterfree, Raichu, Racko and Vicky were being called into their Pokéballs as well.

"Mutark, go!" May called once she'd done a quick switch on her Pokédex. "Power up and attack the Fire-type! Skarmory, Spirit, attack the Ice-type!"

"Charlie, Diamond, the one on the right! Mist, Pamela, left!"

The Fire-types and Skarmory gathered around Puragon. Three Flamethrowers from the Charizard and Spirit blasted her at once, immediately followed by a blazing tackle from Diamond. Skarmory struck her with glowing wings; she retaliated with a swing of her tail but then blasted a beam of ice at Mutark, who was still in her second-smallest form, licking her wounds on the ground. The cat Pokémon mrowled in pain, still too weak to withstand such a powerful attack; she collapsed, and May recalled her.

A well-aimed Flamethrower from Raudra hit Skarmory, sending him crashing to the ground, half-melting. As the Fire Pokémon all struck Puragon again, the ice dragon blazed into blue dragon fire and started to madly attack them, and one by one they were thrown aside, unconscious. As Mark recalled Charizard, he looked quickly over at the Raudra; another Flamethrower had struck down Pamela, and now only Mist was left, firing a desperate Hydro Pump to fend the dragon off. The attack, despite being Water-type, barely seemed to hurt Raudra.

There was a vengeful cry, and Mark looked quickly over to see that the injured Dragoreen had crawled to her feet. A bolt of lightning shot from her mouth towards the Vaporeon, and Mist collapsed with a pained whimper.

_"No!"_ Chaletwo blurted out. _"They're getting away!"_

Raudra and Puragon had already swooped back down over the cliff, presumably to return to whichever holes they had been lurking in. Dragoreen shook herself and spread her wings, and...

...and Mark just _couldn't_ let it all be for nothing.

He dug quickly into his pocket, feeling blindly for the embossed markings on his Pokéballs, and then threw his Master Ball at Dragoreen just as she was taking off.

It bounced off her long tail and opened in mid-air; the dragon looked over her shoulder in panic as she realized what was happening, and then she turned into a red blob and was absorbed into the ball. It wobbled pathetically on the ground and then came to a standstill.

"Shouldn't you have saved that Master Ball?" May said doubtfully as Mark walked over to pick it up, feeling strangely guilty.

_"Too late to think about that now,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Now hurry away from here, before her sisters realize she didn't follow them and come back."_

Mark started running before he'd properly taken in the object he was holding. When he remembered it again, it was gone, disappeared to the PC storage system to lock Dragoreen away.

* * *

After a hurried escape to somewhere acceptably far from the cliffs without apparent pursuit, Chaletwo suggested they might as well sit down and rest for a moment, and the kids gratefully collapsed in the grass.

"So," Mark mumbled after a lengthy while, "what now?"

May and Alan looked at him; neither answered.

_"Well, obviously,"_ Chaletwo said after a moment of hesitation, _"you're not quite cut out for taking on multiple legendaries at once yet."_

"Are you kidding?" Alan said. "They slaughtered us. As soon as Raudra and Puragon came and started pulling together for area attacks, we didn't stand a chance."

Mark nodded dully.

"We should've known," May said quietly, shaking her head. "Two dragons are more than twice as powerful as one. It's the Waterberg principle."

Mark looked blankly at her. "The what?"

He was mildly surprised when she didn't make a quip about how he should have paid more attention in school. "Waterberg principle. It's the reason we carry six Pokémon and not seven or eight."

Mark blinked.

"Bascially, the advantage of variety makes smaller teams more powerful compared to the number of Pokémon than larger teams. Too many, and they're redundant or get in each other's way. We have eighteen Pokémon out at a time, but they're not fully three times more powerful than if we just had six. And our Pokémon may be twice as powerful as they were before the League, but two legendaries together are three or four times more powerful than one."

There was a short silence while this sank in. "So basically, we're screwed," Mark said. "Just to beat two dragons together, our Pokémon need to be twice as powerful as they already are. And then, if we ever do beat them, there are eight unicorns waiting for us."

"At the very least we need to train much more," May said. "And we need better strategies for taking on multiple legendaries. Right now... we just can't do it."

There was a short silence. "Well, isn't that just great," Alan said suddenly, standing up. "Forget it. You can go to the safari and catch more Pokémon to raise into murderous manchildren. I'm going home."

He grabbed a Pokéball from his belt, sent out the unconscious Diamond and started to rummage through his bag.

_"Alan, you can't..."_ Chaletwo began.

"I damn well can," he said, jerking his head towards Mark. "It's going to be months before you have any use for me. When you're actually going to battle some legendaries, you know where I live. Until then, goodbye."

Mark stared at him for a moment, then looked to May expecting some form of protest. She was looking silently away, however, her fists clenched around the grass beside her. He tried to tell himself he ought to be convincing Alan to stay, but though he felt bad for it, the thought of being alone with May again was kind of relieving after all the pent-up tension of the past two days.

_"...I guess you're right,"_ Chaletwo said reluctantly. _"There's been nothing in the way of team spirit the past couple of days, anyway. But you have to train, and you have to be there when we need you, all right?"_

Alan nodded stiffly. He'd found a Revive and touched the Rapidash's body with it, then followed it with a Hyper Potion and an Elixir. "We're going home to Green Town," he said as he helped Diamond to her feet. "They're not coming."

The Pokémon looked at Mark and May in puzzlement, but didn't protest as he climbed onto her back. "Let's go," he said, looking determinedly straight ahead.

"Goodbye," Mark said doubtfully. "See you around, I guess?"

Diamond neighed a confused goodbye in reply before turning forward and speeding into the distance with her trainer.


	57. The Ouen Safari

Whoa. I'm sorry for forgetting to actually update on here for a while. There are actually three new chapters. I'll be posting the other two over the next few days. Sorry again for the wait.

* * *

**Chapter 56: The Ouen Safari**

Mark and May arrived at the gates of the Ouen Safari the next morning after a silent but thankfully tension-free journey. Regardless, May was obviously quiet and distracted and Mark couldn't help finding it a little worrying that she hadn't yet shown any signs of getting over Taylor's death.

"Maybe, uh, you should try to catch something," he suggested carefully as they entered the gatehouse. "To replace..."

May didn't answer at first. "You have fewer Pokémon than I do," she said after a few seconds. "And with Letaligon leaving and all..."

Mark considered it. "That's true," he admitted. "Let's go get some Safari Balls, then."

At the counter sat a woman with long, blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, leaning casually back in her chair and looking at a computer monitor. As they approached, she stood up, adjusting her camouflage hat. "Hey," she said, smiling. "I'm the overseer of the Safari. You registering?"

They nodded, and she entered some information into the computer. "Been here before?"

They shook their heads.

"All right," she said. "That'll be five hundred apiece. Pokédexes, please." She had to enter more information after receiving the devices, then handed them back, reached behind the counter and took out two small leather sacks.

"These are your Safari Balls. The Safari employs Pokéball-suppressors that disable any other balls, so don't even try to lob anything else at the Pokémon in there. The Safari Balls are registered to the Safari, so if you catch anything it's sent to our PC system; you have to talk to me when you leave to get them transferred to you." She passed the sacks to them as she went on.

"Now, the way things work here at the Ouen Safari is that we think the Pokémon should get to battle you fair and square just like everywhere else, so you can bring your Pokémon with you. What you _can't_ do is knock out any Pokémon you're not going to catch. They're here because they don't want to get knocked around by trainers who won't catch them all day, all right? Only battle Pokémon you're interested in that challenge you or respond willingly to your challenge. If you break the rules, I'll know by the time you come back here for your catches, and don't think I'm going to hand them over to you if you haven't been on your best behaviour. I have my contacts." She gave them a mysterious, slightly smug grin.

"But if there are Pokéball-suppressors..." Mark began, confused.

"I'm getting to that," the woman said, waving a hand at him. "Because of the Pokéball-suppressors, of course, you won't be able to send your own Pokémon out and in either, so they'll have to walk by your side. Though it's not a requirement, I recommend only having one out per trainer at a time – if you want to switch, there are isolated, clearly marked no-suppression areas within the Safari where you can do so. The Pokémon tend to get a little antsy if they see a champion team of six lumbering around."

They nodded. Mark looked into the sack he'd received; it was filled with something like twenty or thirty minimized balls.

"Speaking of champion teams," the woman said as they were turning towards the exit, "aren't you May Victoria Wallace?"

May froze, and the warden apparently took that as a yes. "Good job at the League. I hoped to see my daughter win, of course, but I'm glad the one who beat her had two X chromosomes and no superclones, at least."

For a second May looked at her in confusion, "Robin Riverstone's your...?" she then began hesitantly, and suddenly Mark could see the resemblance: same thick blonde hair, same focused green eyes, same confident smile.

The overseer beamed. "She's great, isn't she? Don't get me wrong, it was a well-deserved victory, but you have to admit her Charizard kicked your Tyranitar's ass."

Mark could see the edge of May's mouth twitch a little at the mention of Tyranitar, but she kept it remarkably well together; he didn't think he would have detected anything strange if he weren't looking for it. "Yeah, she was really good," she said, nodding; she even managed a bit of a smile.

"As for what came after, I don't make a habit of speaking ill of the dead, so let's leave it at that," the woman said grimly before straightening herself and looking between the two of them. "Well. I think I've babbled on long enough. Any questions, or are you ready to go?"

* * *

Only minutes later, they were walking around the vast grassy expanse that was the first zone of the Safari, Spirit trotting behind May while Letaligon walked by Mark's side, looking around. He'd picked her after some thought, realizing he should probably try to spend as much time with her as he could before her release, and she seemed to be enjoying herself even if she wasn't talking much. Though she hadn't said it directly, Mark suspected the reason for her bright mood, one way or another, was excitement about leaving; some part of him felt a little miffed that she was so enthusiastic about getting away from him, but he tried his best to ignore that part and be happy for her anyway.

"Anything in particular you want to go for?" he asked May after a while. They'd seen some wild Pokémon flitting around, but she had barely reacted to their presence.

"What?" She looked up as if snapped out of a trance. "I don't know."

He nodded. He felt the same way, really. If he was going to capture a new Pokémon, it should probably be one with some significant advantage against at least one of the remaining legendaries; that was all he was still training for, after all. Beyond that, he didn't really have any ideas.

"You should catch something strong," Letaligon said; Mark looked up, but she was looking at May, not him. "You need a powerful Pokémon to come in Tyranitar's place. Maybe another Rock-type."

May didn't answer. Spirit gave Letaligon a glance that she ignored.

"I don't know what kinds of Pokémon are in here," Letaligon went on. "Maybe there aren't any Rock-types. Perhaps a Grass-type? Water-types are too common for only Raichu to handle. Or a Psychic-type."

Letaligon looked expectantly at May, but she was still silent and didn't even look at her. After a moment Letaligon turned back to Mark, looking a little indignant. "Your team is way too weak to Rock," she said irritably. "When I'm gone, that's four out of six weak, two doubly. That's ridiculous. And Ice, too – three weak, one doubly, and only one counter. You should get another Steel-type."

Mark shrugged. "Maybe." Steel-types, of course, were resistant to most of the elemental types of the Color Dragons and Waraider herd, as well as to the dragons' Dragon attacks – she might have a point there. Were there any Steel-types here? He automatically looked around; there was a Furret scuttling curiously through the grass nearby, but at the moment he didn't see any other Pokémon looking like they might be up for a challenge.

"Maybe there are more Pokémon in the forest zone," he suggested, pointing towards the woods off to the west. "Should we check it out?"

May gave a barely-visible nod, and they headed westwards. He guessed the forest zone was an offshoot of Ruxido, one way or another; the distribution of tree species looked distinctly familiar, and Letaligon even commented that it felt like home. A couple of Mankey watched them for a moment from a safe distance before disappearing into the canopy; otherwise, the Pokémon again appeared to be staying out of their way. It was a little while before Mark realized why.

"Oh," he said, "most trainers come here pretty early on their journeys. A lot of the Pokémon must be intimidated when suddenly two trainers stop by after the League with powerful, evolved Pokémon."

"That doesn't make sense," said Letaligon. "Ambitious Pokémon should want to get caught by champion trainers."

She'd barely said the last word when suddenly a tree rustled and a dark shape landed on the ground in front of them, wasting no time before darting at Letaligon.

She swung her head, but the Pokémon nimbly scuttled out of the way, and she cried out as two sharp claws raked across her vulnerable underbelly, drawing blood. Letaligon whirled around just as the shape stopped a short distance away, revealing itself to be a Sneasel.

"Iron Head!" Mark ordered without thinking, and Letaligon charged at the Sneasel to headbutt it, her body turning wholly metallic. It dodged again, delivering a slash to her leg now.

"Uh, Metal Burst!" he called, some part of his brain unconsciously in League-mode, and in an instant, Letaligon became a metallic reflection of the Sneasel's attack. The catlike creature was thrown aside, hissing defensively as blood spurted from slashes on its belly; Letaligon used the opportunity while it was distracted by the pain to slash at it with the blade on her head, tossing it into a nearby tree trunk.

Mark quickly grabbed a Safari Ball from the sack the warden had given him and threw it at the Sneasel's prone form. It dissolved into a blob of red and was absorbed into the ball; he watched it intently as it wobbled on the ground, and finally the ball stilled, the glow fading from the button.

"Another one that's weak to Rock," Letaligon grumbled as he picked up the ball, only to have it vanish from his hand, presumably disappearing to the Safari's PC system.

"That's true," Mark said reluctantly, "but none of the remaining legendaries are Rock-types anyway. I think a Sneasel will be fine. We have five dragons to fight too, and..." He thought of Raudra and Puragon. "...well, _some_ of them are weak to Ice."

He automatically looked at May for confirmation that this wasn't a terrible idea; she shrugged.

"You should catch another one," Letaligon said stubbornly.

"Maybe if we find a Steel-type or something."

_"I'm not sure catching many additional Pokémon at once would be such a good idea,"_ Chaletwo put in. _"The Pokémon here are relatively low-leveled; just getting one each up to par could take a while. It's also probably harder for them to learn to work together when many new team members are being inducted at the same time. And if the, uh, Goldberg principle is right, or whatever it was that May was talking about, larger team sizes don't help that much anyway."_

Everyone looked questioningly at May. "Then perhaps you don't need to catch another Pokémon," Spirit said after a moment, addressing her trainer. "Even now, you have a team of eight."

May shook her head slowly. "No, I should catch something," she said, looking distractedly around, and then suddenly she said, "Spirit, attack that Stantler!"

Mark turned where she was looking in surprise; there was indeed a Stantler there, watching them warily from between the trees. Spirit fired a bright cone of flames towards it, and the startled deer Pokémon leapt to the side, but then approached Spirit, horns glowing: it had accepted the challenge.

"Another Flamethrower!" May ordered, but Spirit hesitated, likely distracted by the hypnotic influence of the Stantler's antlers. It used the opportunity to charge at her, knocking her over with a powerful tackle. Spirit was tossed into the dirt but rose quickly, shook herself and countered with a jet of flame which this time struck true. The Stantler grunted and formed a ghostly light between its antlers, which spun distracting circles around the Ninetales as she growled.

"Spirit, focus!" May called. "Counter with your own Confuse Ray!"

The Stantler was already taking advantage of Spirit's disorientation by striking her with another Take Down attack, but the shock of the impact seemed to clear Spirit's mind somewhat, and as she rose to her feet, she formed a ghost light of her own. It danced enticingly around the Stantler, tempting it to look away, and Spirit needed no order before she fired a third Flamethrower. The deer Pokémon staggered back, wobbling a little on its feet, and then a Safari Ball bounced off its back, popped open and sucked it inside.

The ball shook three times and went still.

May didn't bother to pick it up; she just looked at it, fists clenched, until it vanished.

"Why would you catch a Stantler?" said Letaligon with annoyance, breaking the silence. "You have no use for a Stantler."

Spirit looked up at May with a bemused expression, and Mark couldn't help being puzzled as well; of all Pokémon, Stantler was one of the least Maylike he could imagine.

"It's not about that," May said, but she didn't clarify what she meant at all; instead she headed off in the direction they'd been walking in. After a second Letaligon trotted after her, and Spirit and Mark had no choice but to follow.

* * *

They exited the Safari a bit later that afternoon without capturing any other Pokémon. Letaligon had mostly given up complaining and was back in her bright mood from before, and May, if still quiet, didn't seem quite as distracted as she had that morning. The warden handed them their new Pokéballs with a smile, and once they were out and had found a convenient hill to get behind to give them privacy from the road, they sent out Stantler and Sneasel to join Spirit and Letaligon.

"Hi," said Mark when the Pokéball light had materialized into the small weasel Pokémon. A quick Pokédex scan had earlier told them both of their new team members were female, and he supposed he recognized now that her featherlike left ear was a little smaller than on some other Sneasel he'd seen. The two newcomers exchanged vague nods and greetings with them.

"So you're a champion?" Sneasel said after a second, looking at Mark.

After a brief moment of puzzlement, he remembered Letaligon's words immediately preceding Sneasel's appearance. "Oh, no," he said quickly, pointing at May, "that's actually her." At Sneasel's slightly dismayed expression, he added awkwardly, "Technically we can trade if you'd prefer?"

"No," May said immediately, her voice firm. When everyone looked at her curiously, she said, "We're going to be travelling and training together and getting into all the same battles anyway. It won't matter."

Sneasel looked at her for a doubtful moment but then shrugged. "Makes no difference to me, I suppose."

"Unless..." May started again, abruptly, "unless Stantler would rather be with Mark?" She looked unsurely at him, then at Stantler. The deer Pokémon shook her head slowly, looking confused.

"All right." May nodded distractedly before looking at Stantler again. "So if... if something is bothering you, or you're unhappy with anything, just talk to me, okay? You – you can talk, right?"

Stantler cocked her head. "Yes, I can talk," she said, sounding bemused. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." May sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Mark, should we tell them about Chaletwo now, before we send the others out?"

"Right." Mark took a deep breath and started to recount everything about the War of the Legends, both what the two legendaries had told him when he was dead and what they'd speculated and discovered since then. After some initial incredulity and Chaletwo agreeing to come out of his Pokéball for a few seconds to confirm the story, Sneasel continued to ask a lot of questions; Stantler was mostly silent, but listened intently and made occasional observations.

"So what we're going to do now," he said after explaining their failure to capture Raudra and Puragon, "is just to spend a while training and strategizing – or, well, first we're going to Ruxido to release Letaligon." He gestured towards her; she'd gotten bored, lain down and closed her eyes somewhere in the middle of Mark's explanation of the War. "But then it's just trying to improve our chances against those two. Then when we think we're ready, hopefully they'll still be there, and..." He shrugged. "We'll try our luck."

Sneasel nodded. "That sounds good."

"What about the others?" Stantler asked. "Do you have a plan to find them?"

"Not really," Mark admitted with a sigh. "We're trying to just do this one step at a time."

"Well, we had better get on it, then," said Sneasel, standing up. "There's no time to waste."

"Huh?" Mark stared at his new Pokémon, dumbfounded, and she looked back at him as if expecting him to follow. "Wait, don't you want to meet the rest of our Pokémon?"

"Not particularly," Sneasel responded, in a tone that made it sound like the idea was puzzling to her.

"Well, _I_'d love to," said Stantler, giving the weasel Pokémon a pointed look.

"It is important to get to know each other," Spirit said. "It makes it easier to battle together."

"It's not _that_ important," said Letaligon, without bothering to look up when she spoke.

Sneasel turned towards her for a moment. "What're you getting released for, anyway?" she then asked. "You're strong."

"I went with him to evolve and get powerful," Letaligon answered. "Now I'm going back."

Sneasel gave her an incredulous stare. "Instead of battling _legendary Pokémon_?"

This time Letaligon did look up. "What of it?" she asked defensively. "I'm strong enough."

"You're _never_ strong enough," Sneasel replied bluntly.

_"Hell with strength,"_ Chaletwo said abruptly, irritated. _"Isn't either of you concerned about _stopping the end of the world_?"_

Sneasel looked at Mark for a second. "Don't kid yourself," she said. "If the world didn't end a thousand years ago, there's no reason it should now. What do I care if the legendaries get replaced? All _I_ have to do to be safe from the War is not get in your way when you rampage."

_"But the legendaries today are more powerful –"_

"And that makes them accidentally blow up the planet when they just want to kill each other? I don't buy it, pers –"

A Flamethrower suddenly enveloped Sneasel; she screeched in pain as Spirit jumped on her and pinned her down with her paw. "You insolent pest," the Ninetales snarled, more flames licking the sides of her mouth. "Those legendary Pokémon have voluntarily watched over you and your ancestors for hundreds of generations, and you insult them? Thousands of innocent Pokémon would die in the struggle, and all you care about is saving yourself?"

"Can everybody please just calm down?" Mark said exasperatedly as Sneasel began to hiss some pointed reply; everyone looked at him. "Look, if you're going to help us, I don't really care about your reasons. Just... we _just_ had a falling-out with somebody else. Can't you be at least vaguely friendly? Please?"

Spirit released Sneasel with visible reluctance. The weasel stood up, still watching her warily out of the corner of her eye. "I don't have a choice if I want to battle the legendaries with you, do I?"

"No," Mark said firmly. "You can leave if you want, but if you're going to come with us, be civil." The Ninetales hmphed. "And you too, Spirit. You can't just attack my Pokémon willy-nilly if they say something you don't like."

Mark took a breath, turning towards Letaligon. "And of course you're strong enough," he went on. "You wanted to get strong to defeat your father, right? That means strong enough to do that is strong enough, period. If Sneasel wants to be training and getting stronger for the rest of her life, good for her, but that doesn't mean you have to think the same. And if you don't care about stopping the War, for any reason, that's fine and that's why we're going to take you to Ruxido so you can go and do what you want with your life. This doesn't need to be complicated."

He took a deep breath after the rant and felt a little sheepish as everyone stared at him, until Stantler broke the silence. "Well put," she said. "None of us ought to be condemning one another." There was a pause. "I'd like to meet the rest of your Pokémon," she then continued, "but I suppose if Sneasel doesn't, you can recall her first."

May, who had been silent most of the conversation, suddenly spoke. "Sneasel," she said quietly, "I think you should meet the others."

The weasel looked unsurely at her for a moment but then apparently decided to take her word for it. "Fine," she said and sat down in the grass with a sigh.

As Mark reached for his other Pokéballs, he couldn't help noticing Letaligon was shifting uneasily, glancing at Sneasel but not saying a word.


	58. Three Conversations

**Chapter 57: Three Conversations**

"Stantler, Hypnosis!"

Stantler's antlers glowed with psychic energy as the Fangcat facing her hissed. Even after all Mark had been through in the meantime, the huge sabertoothed beast seemed every bit as menacing as the one that had killed Scyther what felt like years ago. Seeing it waver on its feet and then simply slump over on its side with its eyes shut just seemed fundamentally wrong, somehow.

"Sneasel, Night Slash!" Mark ordered, and his newest team member was all too eager to comply. With dark energy swirling around her claws, Sneasel leapt at the Fangcat and raked her blades across its belly, drawing crimson blood. The creature twitched in its unnatural sleep but failed to wake up even as the weasel delivered another slash.

"Stantler, Stomp!" May called.

Stantler reared up on her hind legs and brought her hooves down on the Fangcat's skull with a sickening crack, and something about the sound and the attack connected in Mark's mind to the crunch of Taylor's ribs collapsing under Tyranitar's foot, the abrupt end of his scream, the corpse's dead eyes staring emptily into the sky.

He shuddered, suddenly nauseous, and looked at May; she, too, had frozen, fists clenched, gaze fixed unseeingly into the distance.

As Stantler noticed their silence and turned her head questioningly towards them, Sneasel darted at the Fangcat yet again, slicing her bloodied claws into its side. This time the sabertooth Pokémon's eyes flitted open and it rose to its feet with a hiss, swinging its engorged fangs towards Sneasel. She darted easily out of the way and ducked between Stantler's legs, and as the deer turned sharply back around, the Fangcat pounced. Stantler cried out as its fangs tore into her side; May's eyes widened and she quickly reached for Stantler's Pokéball as Sneasel jumped onto the Fangcat's back. While the weasel tore viciously at the creature's shoulders, a red beam absorbed Stantler and recalled her into the safety of her Pokéball; the Fangcat crashed into the ground and didn't get up again.

"Good job, Sneasel," Mark said hurriedly as he recalled her. "That... that could be bad for Stantler. We need to get her to a Pokémon Center, quick."

"But the Pokéball stops her state from..." May started to protest, but then trailed off. "Yeah. Let's hurry."

* * *

Mark was mildly surprised when May decided to stay in the Pokémon Center while the nurses tended to Stantler, even though they had been assured she was not in any real danger and would be fine in only a short time.

"Yes, I'm sure," she insisted, looking distractedly around. "Look, we need Ultra Balls. Why don't you just use the time to go to the Pokémart and get some? I'll get rooms for us while you're there."

He couldn't shake the feeling she was just trying to get rid of him somehow, but after a moment's consideration he figured he might as well leave her alone if she wanted him to, and she was right about the Ultra Balls, so he shrugged, left the Pokémon Center and headed for the Green Town Department Store.

It felt like years since he'd first come to Green Town, before the Pokémon Festival, before the legendary capturing. He could barely remember his life without the quest on his shoulders anymore, and thinking about the fact only a few months ago he'd been here picking out events to register his Pokémon in and looking forward to witnessing Chaletwo's appearance made it strike him harder than ever before that despite that they had somehow already caught a few legendaries, he was still just a kid with no real idea what he was doing.

The weight of everything that supposedly depended on their mission hit him like a brick, and he stopped as something occurred to him that somehow hadn't properly occurred to him before.

"Why me?" he asked quietly, directing the question inwards. "Of all people, why pick _me_?"

_"You were there,"_ Chaletwo responded with a telepathic sigh. _"Out of the people who came to see me each of those five times, I picked out someone present who had Pokémon and seemed more excited than afraid of being in the presence of a dangerous legendary Pokémon. That's all there was to it."_

"There are thousands of better ways to pick people for this than that," Mark said.

Chaletwo was silent for a moment. _"I know."_

"So why didn't you do it differently?"

There was a moment of silence again. _"It's a stupid plan,"_ Chaletwo then said, bitterly. _"It was a stupid plan from beginning to end. I'm not sure who I was ever trying to kid with it."_

Mark blinked. Whatever he had been expecting, this was not it.

_"Mew is right. Sneasel is right. The world isn't going to end if the legendaries die and happen to take some mortals with them. We don't even know what happens if the legendaries are all inside Pokéballs when the moment comes. We can't stop it. I'm not sure I ever really thought we were going to stop it. I think I just wanted something to do to pretend I was doing something about it instead of sitting around waiting to die."_

It took a second for this to sink in. "What? Don't say that," Mark said, but it didn't stop the pit forming in his stomach. "We've come this far. We can't just stop and give up."

Chaletwo sighed. _"I'm not saying we should. It's just –"_

"I mean, even if it's hard, we can at least _try_ to save you, right? And thousands of people and Pokémon would die in the struggle too if the War happened. Of course we should –"

_"– I'm sorry for dragging you into this. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were suddenly ordered to go save the world because of it. It wasn't fair and I don't blame you if you want to quit."_

There was a wincing, reluctant quality to his voice, like he hated every word. Mark was stunned into silence for a second; this was just about the last thing he ever expected Chaletwo to say, reluctantly or otherwise.

"It's a bit late to say that now, isn't it?" he said pointedly after a moment. When the legendary didn't reply, he added, "And what's with the sudden mood swing, anyway?"

_"It's not a mood swing,"_ Chaletwo replied exasperatedly. _"I've just... been thinking that maybe I should make a soul gem after all, just to be safe. I didn't really want to face it but this whole catching-all-the-legendaries thing probably isn't going to work, and then it's good to have some insurance –"_

"...and then it would be nice if I'd quit to give you an excuse," Mark finished, anger seeping into his voice. "Right?"

Chaletwo responded with a sudden heat. _"What is this compulsion you have to attribute everything I do to me just being a jerk? I'm genuinely sorry I pulled you into this in the first place, but I truly think you're probably better off going home, telling your family to stay in an underground shelter or something and waiting it out. I know I used to say the legendaries were so powerful now that they're going to destroy the whole world, but I really just kept telling myself that to justify the plan. I had no real basis for it. The world isn't going to end. You can save yourself. Why am I the bad guy for pointing it out?"_

Mark bit back at least three snappy replies that came to mind by telling himself it wouldn't help. "What about everybody else?" he said finally. "We can't possibly fit all the people and Pokémon in the world into a shelter."

Chaletwo hesitated before replying. _"Look, Mark, I know you have trouble with this 'mortals die' thing, but..."_

"Not this again," Mark cut in, frustrated. "I can't just go save my friends and family and watch the apocalypse happen to everybody else."

_"The alternative is watching the apocalypse happen to everybody including you!"_

The desperation in his tone gave Mark pause; he took a deep breath, calming down a little. "Unless we catch all the legendaries and stop it, like we're planning."

_"That's all well and good, but I'm really starting to think that was wishful thinking from beginning to end."_

"I don't care what you do, but I can't just go home," Mark said, realizing as he said it that it was the truth. "That's the thing at this point. I don't know what I'm doing and you shouldn't have picked me, but because I know what's going on now I _have_ to try to do something about it. I can't run away from it. And I don't know how you can just –"

_"Because I'm _scared_, Mark!"_ Chaletwo responded, a hint of a tremble in his voice. _"I've lived for a thousand years and in a few months' time I'm going to go mad and get torn apart and stop existing. How do mortals deal with that every day of their lives, knowing it's just going to _end_? I tried to pretend I could stop it but lately everyone has just been pointing out all the reasons it was a dumb plan until I couldn't ignore it anymore. I wish we could save everyone, I really do, but we can't. You can keep trying, but..."_

"But you're going to abandon us and make a soul gem?"

Chaletwo hesitated for a long moment. _"I just... I don't want to die,"_ he said at last, quietly, the fight gone from his voice. For a second he seemed to be about to continue, but then he didn't.

There was silence.

And Mark wanted to continue pushing him, but something held him back, the same something that had made him keep the origins of the Dragons of Ouen secret: in the back of his mind he could _feel_ the naked emotion underlying Chaletwo's words, all that confusion and fear and broken despair, and he couldn't help sympathizing on some basic level.

He took a deep breath. "Isn't it actually better for you to be in a Pokéball than in a soul gem?" he said. "The soul gem needs you to die and be helpless unless you get resurrected by a Psychic-type into a new body. In a Pokéball, you can be held in stasis where the Destroyer can't get at you, keep your body and your power and it's simple to send you out again after. Right?"

_"Pokéballs are designed to open when destroyed. It's not safe."_

"But gems are destructible too, technically," Mark pointed out. "And the PC Storage System's Pokéball farms are supposed to be pretty secure. I mean, they're like bank vaults, built to withstand explosions and attacks of all kinds."

_"You have no idea what a legendary at double its full power is capable of."_

"Yeah, but they'd hardly just _happen_ to unleash that kind of power against a human building. They're mostly trying to kill each other, right? There's no reason they'd go for the Pokéball farm. Isn't a gem a lot more likely to be accidentally destroyed?"

_"What's it to you?"_ Chaletwo said irritably. _"Why do you care if I'm in a soul gem or a Pokéball?"_

Mark hesitated. "I guess it's actually pretty good having you around," he admitted at last. "It would be hard doing it alone. And if it were me I'd rather be in a Pokéball."

Chaletwo didn't answer. After a moment, Mark sighed and walked on towards the Pokémart, leaving the legendary alone.

* * *

It took Mark a moment to realize who the teenage boy standing with his back facing towards him by the Pokéball shelves was.

"Hey, Alan," he said, approaching him cautiously. Alan jumped and whirled around, and Mark started to regret talking to him as the older boy's expression turned from recognition to dread.

"Mark? What are you...?" Alan looked wildly back and forth before fixing his gaze back on Mark. "Where's... where's May?" he asked warily.

"At the Pokémon Center," Mark answered. "Her Stantler was hurt pretty badly."

Alan's face turned blank. "She has a Stantler?"

"Yeah. She caught her at the Safari."

"Right." Alan nodded, a few too many times. He seemed to have relaxed a little at hearing May wasn't with him, but he was still clearly tense and awkward, and it was making Mark slightly uncomfortable.

"She stayed behind," he said after a moment. "To wait while Stantler was being treated."

Alan blinked. "Oh," he said. "That's new."

Mark hesitated a little, realizing slowly what he really wanted to say to Alan. "I think she's still pretty upset."

Alan exhaled, looking down. "All right. That's not really any of my business."

"I think she might be trying to..."

"Mark," Alan cut in, closing his eyes, speaking with a forced calmness, "out of everything, can we please talk about something other than May right now?"

"Okay," Mark said hesitantly. "How are your Pokémon?"

"Fine. We've been training."

Mark looked at him, growing more awkward by the minute, not sure what else to say.

"Was it anything else?" Alan said finally.

"Not really," Mark replied in defeat.

"Okay. Bye, then. You'll call."

"All right. Bye."

Alan smiled forcedly and hurried towards the exit, and Mark couldn't help not really missing him.

* * *

May sat down on the bed in the room she'd rented for the night and looked at the Pokéball in her hand.

How were trainers supposed to do this? It felt silly, like something you saw on TV but just seemed awkward and cheesy in real life. Everything about supposed good trainers was like that: forced, weird, stupid. She'd never even been able to take Alan seriously half of the time.

And yet here she was.

She sighed and dropped the ball, watching it release Stantler in a burst of white light. She tossed her neck a little before looking at her trainer.

"So," May began and felt so, so stupid, "are... are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the deer Pokémon said. May nodded, unsure how this conversation was supposed to proceed exactly. Stantler opened her mouth again, gaze still fixed on her trainer. "But you aren't."

Something twitched inside May. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't have to tell me what's bothering you," the Pokémon said carefully, still surveying her closely. "But don't pretend it's nothing – there is clearly something going on. You react strangely to seemingly innocuous things. You've already been to the League and battle like it, but your demeanor is awkward, like a beginning trainer. Everything about you is just a little off."

May blinked at Stantler, unable to answer. (She wanted to protest that last part, but of course it was off. It was ridiculous. How did Mark do it and still sound like a person? And she wasn't sure if she was supposed to feel insulted, and it occurred to her as she squeezed the Pokéball in her hand that she could recall Stantler to make it go away but she knew _that_ wasn't going to be helpful.)

"I'm a mother," Stantler said after a moment. "And I've had a trainer once before. I only want to help you. If you talk, I'll listen and understand. That's all."

May looked away and couldn't help thinking that the _last_ thing she needed right now was a mother to nag and pretend she knew better how to solve her problems than she did – but it struck her that Stantler and Sneasel had never been told about Taylor, and that seemed unfair when all the other Pokémon knew, and that probably meant she should tell her (right?).

She took a deep breath. "There... I used to have a Tyranitar," she said and already regretted starting. "He killed someone and I had to release him."

Something changed in Stantler's expression, something May couldn't work out because she wasn't a Stantler. "Who?" she asked gently.

"Taylor Lancaster. He was... he was a cheating git. He kind of deserved it."

"Nobody deserves to die," Stantler said.

"I mean, I didn't _want_ him to kill him," May clarified, quickly. "Tyranitar just thought I did, because... because he was too young, or something. I didn't know. He never talked."

Stantler tilted her head, waiting.

"I... I think I screwed him up." She regretted saying it, just like she'd regretted it when she'd said it to Alan, just like she hated thinking about it at all. "But I didn't know. I was just trying to be a competitive trainer, and he never talked and never _told_ me he was just a little kid. How was I supposed to know he'd turn out...?"

Her voice faded. It was a sorry excuse. She made a lot of excuses for a lot of things but this was the one thing she couldn't really make excuses for.

"Why do you think it was your fault?" Stantler asked.

"Because Lapras left, too." Why was she telling Stantler all this? (Because, for some reason, she wanted to tell someone.) "I thought that was just because she was too sensitive and couldn't deal with having a trainer, but then Tyranitar..."

She trailed off. Stantler nodded slowly, looking a little wary.

"I'm not... I'm not abusive," May said, hearing her voice waver a little and struggling to stop it. "I don't want to hurt anyone. But I'm not like Mark or Alan. I don't go around... I'm not here to make _friends_. I just want to train a powerful team. Is that wrong? What am I supposed to do? Pretend to be someone I'm not? I keep trying to do everything good trainers are supposed to do but it just feels stupid."

Stantler looked thoughtfully at her for a few seconds. "Why did your Lapras leave?"

"Because she was –"

May stopped and took a breath. No. That wasn't it. She knew that.

"Sometimes I got angry when she didn't do well. And there was a time when she wanted to be recalled but I told her to get another attack in, so she got hit by a Thunder. She was always nervous about getting hurt. I guess she hated battling from the beginning, but I didn't know. I swear I didn't know. She never told me."

"Did you ever ask?"

At first she wanted to blow it off as a stupid question, but then she realized it was cutting deep somewhere, and she couldn't say anything; she shook her head slowly.

"I think that's your problem," Stantler said after a few seconds. "It wasn't that you didn't make friends with them or ask them if they were all right after they got hurt or do enough of the things you think good trainers are supposed to do. It was that you didn't care to get to _know_ them and think of them as people. That's what matters in the end."

May stared at the deer Pokémon, alternative scenarios flashing through her mind: if she'd found out Lapras didn't like battling immediately, released her, found a different Water Pokémon; if she'd talked to Larvitar, picked up on the baby-talk, treated him like a confused child instead of a fighter. Things would have been different. Things could have been...

She looked abruptly away, and Stantler just waited, silent.

"What was your old trainer like?" May asked after a long while, not looking up.

"A boy," Stantler replied, something changing in her voice. "He was a nice enough kid. Didn't talk much."

May nodded frozenly. If not for the time that Mark had wanted to have everyone share stories of their past, she wouldn't have even known if any of her Pokémon had had trainers before.

"One day," Stantler continued suddenly, looking away, "he hanged himself in a tree in Ruxido. We never found out why."

May looked up in a jolt. It occurred to her that suddenly everything Stantler had been saying made a lot more sense. "I'm... I'm sorry."

Stantler sighed. "It was years ago," she just said.

They were silent for a few seconds.

"Mark must be getting back," May said finally, standing up. "I should get out there and check for him."

Stantler nodded. "That's a good idea."

May raised the Pokéball she was still clutching and hesitated. "Thanks," she then said, and it didn't feel as stupid as she'd thought it would.


	59. Sins of the Mother

**Chapter 58: Sins of the Mother**

Letaligon materialized from her Pokéball in a burst of white light and looked quickly around the small Pokémon Center room before relaxing.

"Are we in Green Town?" she asked.

"Yeah," Mark said. "We can go out to Ruxido in a moment, if you like."

She nodded. "Great."

Mark bit his lip. He'd hoped she would at least show some sign of wanting to discuss things, but it seemed she still just wanted to get out. He sighed and sat down on the bed. "Can we talk, just for a bit?"

"I'm not changing my mind about leaving," Letaligon said warily.

"I'm not trying to make you change your mind."

Letaligon shifted, still on guard. "So what do you want?"

Mark took a deep breath. He knew this was almost definitely pointless and not really any of his business, but he couldn't simply let it alone without one final attempt. "Are you still sure you want to kill your dad?"

"I have to," Letaligon said insistently.

"But you don't," Mark said. "You decided you had to, but you could just go and find another herd where you'll never have to see him again."

"You don't understand," Letaligon responded without looking at him. "I have to. If I don't kill him it's all pointless – going with you, evolving, everything."

Mark sighed. He'd feared she'd say something like that, but all the same he'd clung on to the hope she could be persuaded, which was probably silly. Pokémon killed one another. They were a different culture. It was none of his business, and once she was gone she would go and do what she wanted to do with her life and he would move on. That was all.

"It doesn't have to be pointless," he said anyway. "You've grown up. You've gotten strong. You've –"

"Just let me go," Letaligon said desperately. "It's none of your business what I do when I'm out of your life."

That was it, then.

Mark nodded and recalled her silently back into her Pokéball, then stood up to exit the room with a looming sense of dread hanging over his head.

* * *

She was quiet as she walked between Mark and May on the way towards Ruxido, her head lower than usual, her steps heavier, and he couldn't help noticing it, saddening as he realized that there was no way she would let him so much as ask her what she was thinking.

Ever since catching her, ever since seeing her father reject her and hearing her agree to come with him so that she could be strong, Mark had wished he could help her – and at first he'd thought helping her just meant training her so that she'd evolve. But it had never been clearer to him than now that ultimately he hadn't really helped her at all, and now, much as he hated to admit it, it was too late.

When they reached the edge of the forest they stopped. Letaligon took a few steps forward, towards the trees, and then turned around to look at them; she seemed almost startled when Mark detached the six Pokéballs from his belt and dropped them, like it had never crossed her mind to say goodbye to the rest of his team, but she said nothing as the light faded away.

Mark took a deep breath. "So this is goodbye," he said awkwardly. It was weird, too weird; though he should have had more than enough time to get used to the idea he'd have to release one of his Pokémon, he still couldn't get rid of the feeling that he'd failed her, that this wouldn't be happening if he'd just done something better.

Scyther was the first to really get to the point. "Good luck," he said simply. "It's been an honor fighting alongside you. Your father won't know what hit him."

"Yeah, good luck," May said with a slightly skewed smile. "You're strong. You'll be fine."

Letaligon shifted, looking between the two of them as if to respond, but still said nothing. Sandslash, Dragonite and Charizard were muttering their own goodbyes; she only nodded distractedly, glancing between Mark, May, Scyther and the forest, like she wasn't sure what to say to them and just wanted to leave as soon as possible so she wouldn't have to say anything at all.

Jolteon was standing a little back, looking down; Mark had figured he'd take her leaving the hardest and now wished, with a twinge of guilt, that he'd had the presence of mind to talk to him about it first. "I'll miss you," Jolteon said in a small voice, still not meeting Letaligon's eyes. "Thanks for... for being my friend."

He looked up at her at last; his eyes shone with tears as he stepped very carefully up to her and, after another moment of hesitation, rubbed his head gently against her leg. Again Letaligon seemed startled; she looked miserably down at Jolteon, shaking her head a little, and then said quietly, "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," Jolteon said and took a step back, his ears drooping. Letaligon started to turn around, towards the entrance to the forest, and then abruptly looked at Mark.

"Will you come with me?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically pleading.

"What?" Mark asked in confusion, hesitating. "And watch you...?"

"No," Letaligon said quickly. "Just until I've found them. For safety. Maybe they've... maybe they've moved."

It had the air of a hastily assembled excuse, but Mark didn't care; if for the first time she actually wanted his company, he wasn't going to turn his back on her. "Okay," he said and nodded. "Until we find the Letaligon herd."

* * *

For the first time as far as Mark could remember, Letaligon seemed very nervous. She carried herself with a weird stiffness, glancing back and forth as they headed deeper into the forest, and he couldn't help getting the feeling she was more wandering aimlessly than heading anywhere in particular. Regardless, he didn't comment, just following silently along by her side, wondering what he could say to reassure her.

"I hate him," Letaligon said suddenly, her voice trembling, though it had regained the iron determination that had been so jarringly absent earlier. "You don't know how much I hate him. You couldn't understand. You keep saying I shouldn't kill him but you don't know anything."

Mark hesitated. "Maybe not," he admitted.

"He was a monster to my mother, not just me," she went on, not looking at him. "You didn't watch him, every day, treating her like..." She trailed off. "She was his _mate_. He should have _loved_ her. But he didn't. And she couldn't leave him because he was the leader. The leader has a right to a mate."

Mark shuddered. It was dawning on him that he really hadn't understood her situation very well. He'd somehow imagined she could just as well simply leave and avoid a confrontation to begin with, but if it was about her mother as well, it didn't seem so simple. Part of him wondered why she hadn't ever brought it up before, but come to think of it she'd never been very willing to talk about the reasons behind it to begin with.

"You could still take your mother and leave the herd," he suggested.

"If I don't kill him it's all for nothing!" she insisted, and he shut up. They'd been through this part already.

For a minute they walked on, Letaligon shifting a little more than usual. Then, without warning, she muttered, very quietly, "I don't know if I can beat him."

Mark stared at her. "No, don't think like that," he said quickly. "You're strong. You heard May and Scyther. You were in the _League_ and you did brilliant. Pokémon in the wild almost never grow to those kinds of levels."

"He's a Letaligon," she pointed out, the softness of her voice somehow unnerving. "He's been a Letaligon for years. I've only been one for a month."

"You evolved late, that's all," Mark said, but even then he started to wonder: if there was a herd of wild Letaligon, they _had_ to be high-leveled, and the only way they could be so high-leveled in Ruxido, where most of the Pokémon weren't that powerful, was if they regularly fought one another even far past the point where they could defend themselves against any local threat – so why would they stop training after they evolved? Their progress would be slow, but with years of time...

"If I don't win, he's going to kill me," she said, still not looking him in the eye.

And it struck Mark, finally, _finally_, that maybe this wasn't just a matter of whether she would become a murderer, but of whether she would be murdered.

"Letaligon," he said carefully, "if you're having second thoughts, we can still go back –"

"Shut _up_, Mark," she snarled with a sudden ferocity, jerking her head back towards him. "All you ever want is to tell me I'm wrong."

She quickened her pace in the opposite direction, and he hastened to keep up with her. After a moment, she said, in a tone of forced conviction, "Shiny armor is heavy. I'll be faster than him. And I beat a Letaligon at the League while I was still a Letal."

Mark was beginning to try to formulate some kind of a reply when she stopped abruptly, looking around. For a second she stood there, one leg forgotten in the air, all senses on high alert; then, just as suddenly, she straightened and let out a loud, hollow, metallic-sounding cry.

There was silence, and then there was an answer, a similar cry from deeper within the forest. Letaligon listened to it, tensing, and hesitated for a long second before she made off in the direction of the sound.

Mark sprinted unthinkingly after her, only barely keeping up as he tried to avoid the trees; thankfully, as they reached a clearing, Letaligon slowed back down to a halt, and he only just had time to catch his breath before noticing the other Letaligon that was approaching the other side of the clearing.

"Mother," whispered Letaligon, her gaze somehow distant.

"Hope!" called the newcomer as she came into full view, her voice trembling with fearful disbelief. "You came back!"

"Mother," Letaligon said again, shakily, and took a few hesitant steps towards her, but she needed no more, because the other was already bounding across the clearing to meet her. She stopped only just before she would have physically crashed into her, and they crossed their necks and nuzzled gently at each other for a moment, their species' equivalent of a hug; Letaligon closed her eyes, but her mother kept a wary eye on Mark.

"That's your trainer, isn't it?" she asked softly as they stepped back from one another. "Has he been kind to you?"

Letaligon nodded slightly and Mark felt a little warmer.

Her mother nodded. "You're leaving again, then?" she said, keeping her voice level, but Mark could see the worry in her eyes.

"No," Letaligon said quietly. "I only went to evolve. I'm back now." She hesitated for a moment as her mother nuzzled her again. "Where's... where's Father?" she then asked.

Her mother looked in her eyes, shaking her head slowly. "Vigor's dead," she said. "Your sister evolved and deposed him, months ago. She's leader now."

Mark's heart stung weirdly as Letaligon stared at her. "My father's dead?" she repeated in incomprehension.

The older Letaligon looked at her for a moment, eyes sorrowful, and then murmured, "Hope, he wasn't your father."

Letaligon blinked, stiffening. "What do you mean?"

"You aren't shiny," her mother said softly. "Didn't it ever occur to you to wonder, as you grew up?"

"But you said it could happen," Letaligon insisted, sounding puzzled. "You said sometimes shiny Letaligon have –"

"Do you remember my friend, Power?"

Letaligon stared, stunned into silence.

"You have his eyes," her mother went on, her voice gentle and quiet.

There was a long pause. "So..." Letaligon finally began, swallowing, "so all those times he refused to call me his daughter... he was _right_?"

Her mother's eyes widened at the anger in her voice and she took a horrified step back, shaking her head. "Of course it wasn't right for him to treat you like that – but –"

"Why?" Letaligon asked, her voice shaking as she raised it. "Why would you..."

"It was a moment of weakness!" her mother said, pleadingly. "Please understand. I didn't choose Vigor. He chose me and he's the leader; I couldn't say no. But I was Power's mate before I was Vigor's, and sometimes I just..."

"You lied," Letaligon said, trembling. "All that time, you said that... you said sometimes shinies have Leta that aren't..."

"They do," her mother said. "Even shiny mothers can give birth to Leta that aren't shiny, sometimes. But I had to lie; he would've killed us both if he'd known for sure, and you were just a Leta – you couldn't have understood, then. Don't you see?"

For a long moment they looked at one another, Letaligon's gaze staring and disbelieving, her mother's sad and concerned.

"Hope," the older Letaligon murmured, "please come home. I'm sorry for how you feel, but I did it for you, because I love you. Vigor is gone and we can't change it, but Power will be a better father to you than Vigor ever was."

There was a moment where Letaligon looked miserably at her mother, and then something just died in her eyes; the fire that had driven her for as long as he'd known her faded into a dull emptiness. Mark's heart wrenched and he wanted to call out to her, say something, _help_ her somehow this last time he had the chance to, but any words he could begin to formulate got stuck in his throat; he didn't feel like he could interfere in their conversation.

"Mom," Letaligon finally whispered, her voice wavering, and then she just hung her head, making strange strangled noises that it took Mark a second to recognize as sobs.

"Hope, it's not that bad," her mother began cautiously, her voice betraying her confusion; she had no idea what was actually wrong, and it hit Mark that Letaligon would never tell her, or tell anyone; he really was the last person who could offer her any kind of understanding.

"Letaligon," he found the strength to say, but she didn't look up. He approached her slowly, and after a moment of alarm, her mother backed away from her, still keeping a cautious eye on him.

"Letaligon," he said again, quietly, as he placed a careful hand on her neck, remembering his conversations with Scyther, "life is what you make of it. When things don't work out like you thought they would, you can find a new purpose. You're safe, your mother's safe, and your father can't hurt you anymore – you can put it all behind you now, if you just let yourself."

"Just leave me alone," she said, her voice still shaking. It stung, even after all this, but Mark forced himself to nod and step away.

Letaligon's mother glanced anxiously at him before turning to address her daughter again. "Come with me," she said gently. "You'll feel better tomorrow."

Letaligon nodded vaguely without looking at her, and as her mother turned to walk back in the direction she had come from, she followed behind her, head low.

Mark was frozen for a moment before he realized that this was truly it. "Goodbye, Letaligon," he called belatedly after her, unable to think of anything better to say. "Try to be happy –" – and suddenly his voice broke on the last word, because in a sweeping moment it hit him hard that she probably wouldn't listen to him, any more than she had ever wanted to listen to him, and she really might spend the rest of her life not even trying to find her drive again.

As he cut off, she turned her head around, looking at him, and for a moment her expression turned to sorrow and confusion as she hesitated –

– but then her mother noticed her stopping, her eyes hardened again, and she turned away to follow the older Letaligon into the forest, disappearing between the trees.

Mark waited a few seconds, just in case she changed her mind and came back, before he turned back in the direction he hoped led to Green Town.

He wasn't sure what, but something in that final look she had given him had sparked a shimmer of hope that maybe she would take his last piece of advice to heart after all.


	60. December

**Chapter 59: December**

"All right," said May. "Ready... go!"

All at once, the ten Pokémon sprang into action. Jolteon and Raichu fired two simultaneous Thunder Waves in two different directions; May's Butterfree flapped her wings rapidly to create a tailwind behind them. Charizard and Blaziken Flamethrowered their adversary from both sides as Spirit burst into black flames; meanwhile, Floatzel and Sneasel leapt up with ice crystals surrounding their paws, expertly avoiding getting in the way of Gyarados's Dragon Beam and Scyther's Aerial Ace.

Skarmory and Dragonite never stood a chance.

Mark looked sheepishly at the unconscious legendary-substitutes as the smoke cleared. He always felt kind of bad about this, even though the Pokémon had all agreed it was a good idea and they rotated the legendary roles. The legendaries were _powerful_; it seemed _fair_ to gang up on them.

He sighed. "Okay, well done, guys. That was quick."

May was already reviving the two fainted Pokémon with a practiced speed. "I don't think there's much more we can do for now," she said. "We might as well head back to the Eastern Cliffs tomorrow and see how we do." She hesitated a moment. "Meanwhile, we should probably contact Alan."

Mark nodded. It was implicit in that 'we' that she really meant him; though they hadn't talked to Alan for a couple of months now, neither of them wanted to test whether he was ready to talk to May yet. He walked over to her bag, found her Pokégear and dialled Alan's number.

It took a bit before there was an answer. _"Hi,"_ said Alan's voice, impassive.

"Hi, Alan," Mark said. "How have you been doing?"

_"Okay, I guess,"_ Alan said. _"You?"_

"Good. We've been doing a lot of practicing with group fights. We were thinking we'd set off back to the Eastern Cliffs tomorrow and try our luck."

There was a pause. _"All right,"_ Alan said after a moment. _"Just come by my place when you're heading out and I'll be ready."_

Mark took a deep breath. "Actually, I think it would be better if you met us now or later tonight. We've been preparing a lot of new strategies and we should probably get you and your Pokémon in on them. We're on Route 311, just west of the city; you should see our campfire from the road."

There was another pause, longer this time. _"Can't we do that tomorrow?"_ Alan replied eventually.

Mark looked at May; she shrugged and he had a feeling she wasn't exactly dying to have Alan camping with them again either, so he sighed and said, "Fine. We'll be there at ten o'clock."

_"All right."_ Alan hesitated for a long second. _"How's May?"_ he asked finally.

She looked up; Mark waited, but she didn't speak. "Fine," he said instead on her behalf. "Better."

_"Okay. Good."_

There was silence.

"See you tomorrow."

_"Yeah. See you."_

And Alan hung up.

"It's getting late," May said after a further silence. "We should make that campfire anyway."

They did, but the mood for conversation had largely been killed, and as they sat around the fire with their Pokémon Mark eventually took to browsing idly through his Pokédex. In the intervening months since their capture of Dragoreen, he had properly discovered for the first time how many functions it had that seemed to exist solely for statistics geeks – he could access a log of every time he had sent out his Pokémon, for instance, complete with a list of which of his Pokémon had seen the least out-of-Pokéball-time in the past month (Thunderyu, Dragoreen and Chaletwo had a large red zero, as if to scold him for never letting them out). This time, he started skimming through the list of 'seen' Pokémon, which for these newer models appeared to automatically record some basic data for every Pokémon that had been within a certain radius from the device.

Thunderyu was a big question mark near the end of the list, tentatively identified as an Electric/Dragon type. The only other data was a list of crazy stats. Mark looked at the intimidating entry with a mixture of pride and amusement. They'd defeated and caught _that_.

Volcaryu and Polaryu, since they hadn't been caught by him, had even less information, only showing the Fire/Dragon and Ice/Dragon type classifications; a full Pokéball scan would have been required to create a stat approximation. After them, the Pokédex showed a question mark that meant Dragoreen – Dragon/Flying-type, more crazy stats – and then two question marks that had to be Raudra and Puragon.

Mark blinked at their info pages. Again, there were no stats, since he hadn't caught them; the only data was the type classification.

And the type classification, for both of them, was _also_ Dragon/Flying.

"May?" Mark said hesitantly. "Could you come over here for a second?"

She shuffled over as the Pokémon craned their necks to see over Mark's shoulder. "This is the data the Pokédex recorded for Raudra and Puragon. Look at the typing."

"Ah!" said Floatzel behind him, grinning in realization. "That explains a lot, yes?"

May pulled the Pokédex out of his hand and stared at it for a moment. "Oh, hell," she muttered, her fingers tightening around the device, "yeah, it does."

"Is it an error?" Mark asked in confusion.

"I don't think so," May said, shaking her head. "God, it explains _everything_. The Fire Pokémon did terrible against Puragon because she _wasn't an Ice-type_. We were doing it all wrong. No wonder we were doing so well against Dragoreen but then barely scratched the others; she was the only one whose type we actually guessed correctly. We're _idiots_."

And Mark suddenly remembered the legend behind the Color Dragons. They had all been the same, eggs of the same mother, but they'd hatched and grown up in different locations, and they'd adapted. Raudra, the one in the volcano, had learned to use fire because fire was all around her; Dracobalt, at the bottom of a lake, had learned to use water instead. Puragon had learned to use ice, and Venoir poison. It wasn't that they were fundamentally different, only that they'd been flexible enough in their original form to grow up using completely different moves and techniques. And their evolution had then eliminated their flexibility, setting their adapted preferences in stone forever.

He had never heard it said outright, but on reflection he thought he remembered a passage in that book he had read at the library at the beginning of his journey, where the dragons' type affinities were called _special abilities_. Not types. Which was very vague, but –

"Chaletwo," Mark said sharply, "did you know this?"

_"No, but truth to be told, I'm not sure they know it themselves,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Type classifications are a human discovery. Pokémon know what elements they're most comfortable with and learn what they're weak and resistant against through battling during their lives, but legendaries don't spend a lot of their time being hit by attacks that are sufficiently powerful for them to discern a difference. The only reason I know I'm a Dark-type is that Mew couldn't sense me psychically."_

"Did it actually happen like the legend says?" Mark asked, wanting to be sure of his interpretation.

_"I don't know. What does the legend say?"_

"There was a dragon called Vaxil, she hid her eggs in different places, they hatched into Lidreki and adapted to their different environments, then Preciure pushed Dragoreen out of the cave, she found the others and brought them back to fight him, but on the way were distracted hating each other, and when Vaxil saw the conflict between her children she threw herself off a cliff," Mark said, in one breath.

_"Huh,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Well, it's missing some details. Color Dragons have been around for many Wars. Technically they can breed, but if they do they sacrifice their immortality and die soon after, so the last time it happened is fabled even among the legendaries. After the last War we recreated Vaxil, who had been around before, and a male called Yddri, and for some reason they hit it off. The suicide was breeding to begin with. Yddri died immediately, and Vaxil spread the eggs around different environments like Color Dragons do, took the last couple with her and waited for her own death. I doubt she liked all the petty rivalry between her children, but she was already dying. I'm not sure she even survived to the point Preciure pushed Dragoreen out of the cave, if that even happened and isn't just something Dragoreen told the others to justify her little crusade against her brother, but if she did, she would have been barely alive, likely delirious and immobile – which would probably be why she didn't intervene. And the way I heard it, after the children evolved, they noticed their mother was dead, started blaming each other for it to claim their right to her cave, and at some point in the scuffle they threw her body off the cliff themselves."_

Mark couldn't stare at Chaletwo, so he stared at May instead.

"Well, that's kind of horrifying," she said, echoing his thoughts. The story of Vaxil had seemed like a cautionary tale about consequences – the children had fought, it had caused their mother's death, and subsequently they'd decided to leave one another in peace. But the humans witnessing it had no doubt only seen the dragons fighting and then found the mother's body on the ground, and then they'd drawn their own conclusions – probably in such a way as to make it fit into a cautionary tale about consequences, so as to have something to scare their kids with.

It shouldn't have surprised Mark by now. It really shouldn't. One by one, he'd seen all the legendaries they'd met turn out to be nothing like how he'd imagined legendaries as a kid, with different motives, different attitudes – not just different, but flawed. And he hadn't even known that much about the Color Dragons as a kid, so it wasn't as if he'd had much of an idealized image of them beforehand. But it was still the same cold shock every time to be reminded that the gods that were supposed to watch out for the world could be petty and hateful and selfish.

"Well," he said after a pause, forcing his mind to move on, "they were spread around to different environments and adapted to them, with the evolution just solidifying it later on, right? So then it makes sense their type never changed. Raudra and Puragon just got good with Fire and Ice moves, and even if their looks now reflect that, their defensive typing doesn't."

_"Something like that,"_ Chaletwo replied. _"Whatever the reason, at least this is good to know if we're going to battle them again."_

"Yeah," May agreed. "We go for Ice attacks whenever we can, no matter how counterintuitive. Floatzel, just be bombarding them with Ice Punch." The sea otter grinned enthusiastically. "And Sneasel..." The weasel looked expectantly at May, who paused for a moment. "I don't suppose you're opposed to evolving."

Sneasel snorted at the absurdity of the notion.

"Well, we should definitely try to find ourselves a Razor Claw, then; you're going to be a lot more instrumental to this battle than we thought. You already learned Ice Shard anyway, so we don't have anything to lose anymore. Sound okay?"

Sneasel nodded in satisfaction.

"Where do we get one?" Mark asked, looking at May.

"Probably at the Green Town Department Store," she suggested with a shrug.

Someone cleared his throat behind them, and Mark turned sharply around to see Alan standing sheepishly a short distance away. "Actually, I... I've got one."

"Alan?" Mark said suspiciously. "What are you doing here already?"

Alan sighed, not moving from where he stood; May was looking at him too, still wary, but didn't say anything. "I'm sorry," he said, finally. "We have something important to do. I shouldn't comporomise that just because I feel weird about it, no matter how justified." He glanced around, his gaze finding Stantler and staying there.

"You must be Alan," Stantler said after a moment.

"Hi," he said with a forced smile. "You're... you're May's?"

"She is my trainer, yes," Stantler responded.

"Yeah," he said quickly, "that's what I meant."

There was another pause. "For what it's worth," Stantler went on, "I don't think my trainer needs your help to feel like a murderer, so I'd appreciate if you'd move on and treat her like a person."

Alan blinked at her; May looked like she'd been stung, but kept her gaze on him.

"Yeah," Alan said after a second, expelling a breath. "I'm sorry about that, too. Look, I..." He looked at May, finally, his expression defeated. "I wasn't sure if I was going to come, to be honest. But I wanted to know if you'd just bounced back to the same old, like when Lapras wanted to leave, or if you'd really changed. So I came and listened to a bit of your conversation without announcing myself and..."

There was a pause. "And?" May repeated, wary.

"And you asked Sneasel if she wanted to evolve. You weren't even forcing yourself to do it to sound better. You just did."

It was May's turn to blink.

"I mean, it's a really small thing," Alan said quickly, "and it's not a sure indicator of anything, but I don't think you'd ever have done that before."

Stantler looked thoroughly unimpressed with that, and Mark kind of agreed. "You could have just asked, you know," he said. "Treating somebody like a person doesn't involve eavesdropping on them, last time I checked."

Alan looked at him and kind of deflated, sighing; his shoulders sagged, and suddenly he looked very tired. "Yeah, you're right. I just... yeah. May's a person. Consider that filed." He shook his head, spreading his arms out. "Well, I'm back. I'll stop being an idiot now and just shut up."

He sat down by their fire, silently. "So yeah, I have a Razor Claw," he said after a second. "I bought it for a friend when I was on my journey, but then her Sneasel decided he didn't want to evolve after all. It should still be on my PC system. If you want, that is."

Mark nodded. "Yeah, thanks. We can..."

"I want to evolve tonight," said Sneasel immediately, looking at Mark. "If he has the item, we can do it now."

"I'll help," Floatzel said enthusiastically.

Mark looked at May and Alan and then shrugged. "Fine by me," he said. "I'm not that tired."

Alan took out his Pokédex and an item box and retrieved the Razor Claw with a few button-presses, handing it to Mark without words.

"Thanks," Mark said before turning to Sneasel. "Should we go somewhere where there's more space?"

"And more darkness," May added, speaking for the first time in a while. "Sneasel can't evolve unless it's dark around."

"Yeah, that too." Mark looked at them, hesitating. "While I'm gone, can you fill him and his Pokémon in on the strategies?" he asked, directing the question at May. She nodded wordlessly.

"All right, then. See you later."

As he walked towards the forest with Sneasel and Floatzel, he heard indistinctly as Alan sent out his Pokémon and May started to talk about their training as if nothing were more natural. Sometimes he just didn't get how her brain worked.

He was only barely out of sight when there was a hiss out of a bush by his side; he turned wildly around, heart jumping into his throat, before it registered that it had been Scyther's voice, saying his name.

"You scared me," he muttered as the mantis stepped out. "What is it?"

"Sorry," Scyther said quietly, looking uncomfortable. "There's just something I have to do."

"What?"

"All the time we've been here," Scyther went on, looking him in the eye, "I've been trying to forget. I was going to let go of the Code and the swarm and my life in the wild. But it's hard and I can't. I can't just leave again. I have to go and find my swarm."

Things felt strange and surreal all of a sudden; flashbacks of Letaligon assaulted Mark, but this time, after going through that with her, he was oddly calm. "Will you be coming back?" he just said.

Scyther shook his head slowly. "I don't know. The swarm isn't going to want me back, but maybe..." He was silent for a few moments, his gaze distant. "If I'm not back by dawn," he said eventually, "don't wait for me. Tell them all goodbye and that I loved battling with them. That goes for you too." At the last sentence, he inclined his head to Floatzel and Sneasel; they both just looked faintly puzzled.

"All right." Mark's mind still felt strangely detached, frozen. "Whatever you do," he heard himself saying, "I hope you choose what makes you happiest."

Scyther nodded; there was a tinge of genuine gratitude in his eyes. "Thanks for everything," he said, and before the fact Mark might never see him again had even properly begun to sink in, the mantis had dashed off between the trees and out of sight.


	61. The Swarm

Author's Note: This chapter brings up details that were only briefly mentioned in chapters 27 and 29 regarding Scyther's backstory and Scyther society. Some of them could sensibly be recapped within the text of the chapter, but others couldn't without some kind of extremely awkward as-you-know-Bob. This wouldn't really be a problem if this were a novel published in one piece, since they could still be expected to at least ring a bell and the rest of what mattered could be deduced from the context. However, because this is serially published fanfiction and I am a slow writer, it has been several years since many of you actually read those chapters, and that means it would be wholly unreasonable to expect you to still remember any of these details (unless you read the spin-offs, in which they were more prominently featured; in that case, you can skip the rest of this author's note).

So, to jog your memory and save you the trouble of looking for the explanation in ancient horribly-written inconsistent chapters from my dramatic-dialogue-should-end-in-an-ellipsis phase that I'd prefer nobody ever read again: Scyther swarms have a leader, to whom they refer as simply 'Leader'; any member of the swarm who can defeat the leader in a duel can become Leader in the current one's stead. 'True duels' are about life and death, but they also have friendly duels, which are not. Mark's Scyther used to have two friends within the Scyther swarm, Stormblade and Shadowdart, and they called him Razor. And the Scyther have a very strict system of ethics (the Code), of which he has broken all of the five most sacred moral decrees.

This chapter also discusses the events of the spin-off _The Fall of a Leader_. It spoils many key plot points of it, so if you were planning to read that soon, this would probably be a good time to do it (though I apologize in advance for the frequently terrible writing in it). Otherwise, basically everything this chapter mentions as having happened since Razor left the swarm is shown in more detail there, so if you haven't read it, that's where you should look if you think it sounds intriguing.

**Chapter 60: The Swarm**

Razor drew his scythe across the Nidorino's throat and held him down as his struggles became death spasms and then faded into dull twitching.

It felt good to hunt – freeing, really, after only being able to do it in secret for so long – and he wouldn't have done it had he not been somewhat hungry, but just the same, the main reason he was hunting was to have something to offer as an excuse before approaching another Scyther. They had every reason to despise him, but food was food.

He ate half, sliced off the skull, spikes and thickened skin to reduce the remaining weight, and then picked up the rest of the carcass in his mouth, supporting it with his scythes as he headed towards the plains. If Stormblade and Shadowdart didn't want to talk to him, perhaps they'd at least let him share his prey with them, and at this point that was all he could really ask for.

* * *

That old oak tree on the hill had haunted his dreams ever since his departure; seeing it in the flesh again felt strangely unreal, like he might wake up and find himself back in the Gym with Rob any moment now. He felt a strange, tingling apprehension as he approached it, slowing from his flight-assisted dash to a hesitant walk.

Way back when, it had been chance that their favourite place was a bit apart from the rest of the swarm. Now he was kind of relieved that he didn't have to come close enough to the other Scyther for them to recognize him; he might be able to just talk to his friends again and disappear without anyone else knowing he was even there.

The Leader's rock, he noted absently, was unoccupied. Presumably the Leader was out hunting, then, though it was unusual for him to be doing so this late. He shivered at the thought; it meant he could have encountered the _Leader_ in the woods, and there was no chance _he_ would have been appeased by half a Nidorino.

Razor stopped, laying his prey onto the ground in front of him. He saw indistinct shapes lying by the tree, facing away from him, and had to gather his courage for a second before he said, "Stormblade? Shadowdart?"

One of the shapes rose up immediately, turning towards him. "Razor?" said Stormblade in disbelief, his one eye blinking sleepily. "What are you...?"

The other shape got to its feet more slowly, and something was immediately off about the way it moved; this wasn't Shadowdart, Razor realized quickly, and then recoiled in horror as he noticed it was _red_ and _metallic_, and then... "...Nightmare?"

She looked at him, meeting his eyes for just a moment, her expression inscrutable, and then lay back down as if he was never there.

"Razor, it's been..." Stormblade was by his side now, but he didn't care, because nothing made sense. "Are you back for good?"

"Why is she...?"

"A lot of things happened while you were gone," Stormblade murmured. "Let's just talk. We have a bit of catching up to do."

Razor took a deep breath and tore his gaze away from the barely-visible shape of the Scizor. He noticed the Nidorino by his feet, nearly forgotten in his general shock. "Are you hungry?" he said automatically. Stormblade nodded gratefully and started to eat.

"Where's Shadowdart?" Razor asked after a moment.

Stormblade cringed. "Dead," he whispered.

Razor was silent. Only six or seven months ago, when he had met Stormblade and Shadowdart in Ruxido, the latter had been suddenly fierce and dominating, bore the marks of having challenged the Leader, and called Razor unworthy. Dead seemed just one more bizarre descriptor, something that simply didn't fit. "How?" he said eventually.

"Suicide of guilt."

"Shadowdart?" That made even less sense. Shadowdart had never admitted to being guilty of anything, much less considered suicide over it. "Why?"

Stormblade swallowed and sat down. "After you left, he became obsessed with the Code," he said.

Razor couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Shadowdart?" he said again. "Nine-tries-to-catch-a-Rattata-with-closed-eyes Shadowdart?"

Stormblade didn't appear to find it funny in the least; he just shook his head. "He'd go off on passionate rants about the moral decay of the swarm and our Leader's hypocrisy, and he'd train obsessively so he could replace him and set things right. He became very strong – you wouldn't have believed it. He lost the first few attempts, but then he said it was all part of some master plan to scout out the Leader's techniques, and eventually he won. He became Leader."

Razor chuckled again in disbelief: it was all he could really do. If he hadn't had that one little glimpse of how Shadowdart had changed half a year ago, he wouldn't have believed Stormblade at all. As it was, he didn't protest, but that made none of it any less absurd.

"Then he just... started to go wrong. He got this idea that he should execute Scyther who failed to commit suicide of guilt when they'd broken the Code – I think it was all a way for him to get back at you, somehow. Eventually I left, too – that's when I met Nightmare again."

"Are you two...?" Razor asked, without really deciding to.

"No," Stormblade said, shaking his head; there was pain in his voice that Razor couldn't place. "Just friends."

Razor nodded as Stormblade took a half-hearted bite out of the Nidorino.

"We went back," the older Scyther went on at last, his voice faint. "When we got here, Shadowdart had gotten worse. He was killing Scyther for just talking about breaking the Code. And he'd done... things." Stormblade shuddered visibly. "You don't want to know. I guess after we got there and confronted him, the Scyther he used to be managed to claw through and realize what he'd become."

There was a pause while this sank in. "And he killed himself?"

Stormblade gave a very small nod. "He used his left scythe, too. It was the one he used to kill the old Leader. Sometimes I wonder if that meant anything."

Razor stared over the scattering of Scyther below them, trying to wrap his mind around all this – Shadowdart was gone, and not just gone but mad and Code-obsessed and tyrannical and _that wasn't Shadowdart_ – "You're thinking about it too much," he said firmly. "You always thought about things too much."

Yes. That, at least, was static and still made sense. The first time they'd met, Stormblade had been a strange dreamer suggesting the clouds weren't really Pokémon like all the other Scyther said, and even after that, he'd...

Something occurred to him suddenly. "You were actually right about the clouds, you know," he said. "Humans researched them and found out they're just a lot of tiny drops of water."

Stormblade nodded again, slightly. "I know," he said.

Razor wondered vaguely how Stormblade would know that, but it was silly and didn't matter and he didn't ask.

There was silence.

"Nightmare told me you dueled again," Stormblade said.

Razor shouldn't have been surprised Stormblade knew that, not when Nightmare was here, but somehow he hadn't imagined she'd tell anyone. "We did," he said. "And I won and spared her, so I guess we're even."

"Even?" Stormblade replied sharply, his voice suddenly hard. "You're not even. You let her be caught. You stood there and let her be caught and evolved. She never got even for that."

Razor winced. It had been a stupid thing to say, the moment he had said it. "I was scared."

"That's not an excuse," Stormblade went on, that unfamiliar pain entering his voice again. "You kept saying you were in _love_, and then when it mattered..."

"Love is fake," Razor said. "It's just a stupid obsession. I didn't –"

"Do you know how I lost my eye?" Stormblade interrupted. "I had a _mate_. And there was a Letaligon, and she was behind me, and I stayed in its way instead of dodging. Because _I loved her_. Don't you dare talk to me about love. You don't know what it is."

Razor looked at him for a long moment, finally making sense of what was bothering Stormblade. "Is she dead, too?"

Stormblade nodded wordlessly.

"I'm sorry."

The older Scyther was still silent. Razor looked at him, trying to work out how to answer. His practiced tirades against love, all the drunken speeches he'd made to Rob and Mark and the world about why it was empty or shallow or nonexistent, suddenly felt hollow and trite.

"You're right," he said eventually. "I didn't love her. I barely knew her. I just cared about the fantasy of her. I should have helped her anyway – but yes, I was scared."

Stormblade didn't look at him.

"But if I really had loved her, I would have. And I would have done it for you. I would have done it for Shadowdart."

This, too, seemed to hit a spot somewhere. Stormblade glanced at him, silently, and then looked back at the Scyther scattered in the grass ahead of them. "Would you?" he asked after a second had passed. "For Shadowdart?"

Razor looked at him, trying to read what he was thinking. "Of course I would have. He was my friend."

"Was he?" Stormblade gave him a searching look that Razor had no idea how to respond to. After a moment he looked away again with a sigh and continued: "I always thought of him as a friend, too, but then I started thinking about it and realized we barely ever treated him like one."

Razor opened his mouth to protest, but no words came out. On reflection, he'd never taken Shadowdart very seriously, had he? It had never quite occurred to him to question their friendship, per se, but looking back, he'd spent more of his time... well, ridiculing him, than showing he cared. Had he cared? He couldn't tell anymore; the years he'd spent rambling drunkenly to Rob about his days in the swarm had cast things in a certain mold in his mind that might not be as accurate as he'd have liked.

He thought of his conversation with Mark after their last encounter. _Shadowdart was always a wuss._ He thought of how laughable the idea of Shadowdart as Leader had seemed just earlier. _Nine-tries-to-catch-a-Rattata-with-closed-eyes Shadowdart._ Ridiculous.

And now he was dead, and Razor missed him.

He sighed. "No, I suppose we didn't." (We? Stormblade had been perfectly decent as far as Razor could remember.)

They were silent. A lone Venomoth fluttered overhead; after those years of friendly battling with every manner of Pokémon, the instinct that wanted to leap up and kill it was just a dull tug at the edge of his consciousness.

"I still wanted to see him again," Razor said quietly.

"Yeah," Stormblade said, still staring unseeingly at the sky.

"Who's Leader now, if he died?"

"It's being decided by friendly duels, since he wasn't killed by a challenger. In the meantime, Nightmare and I have been overseeing the rituals. It just sort of happened."

Razor blinked at him in incomprehension. "Nightmare _and_ you?"

"Yeah."

"They... the swarm accepts... _her_?"

Stormblade chuckled, like it hadn't occurred to him quite how bizarre that was. "It doesn't take so long to get used to her," he said. "And after Shadowdart and her part in exposing him, I suppose they were more ready to give her the benefit of the doubt. She still gets side glances and occasional hostility, but..." He shrugged. "For the most part, they don't mind. They know she used to be just like them and that a human did that to her. I think they can't help but realize on some level that the same could happen to them."

Razor looked at him in astonishment, part of him weirdly relieved and part of him too baffled to be relieved. And some small part was ashamed, ashamed that here the swarm was tolerating Nightmare as a Scizor when he'd seethed at the very sight of the species and then rubbed it in her face when he'd met her and neglected to kill her.

"How is she?" he asked.

Stormblade let out a long sigh. "You should probably talk to her yourself," he finally said, without meeting Razor's eyes. "She deserves an apology, if nothing else."

Razor's heart stung. "Would she _want_ to talk to me?"

"I don't know," Stormblade said quietly.

And that was all. Stormblade _had_ changed; he was distant, cold, reluctant. Razor hadn't imagined a happy reunion, exactly – well, perhaps he had imagined it, but he certainly hadn't expected it – but Stormblade had always... cared about him. Sought his company. Considered him a friend.

As he stood up in silence and picked up what was left of the Nidorino, Stormblade didn't even look at him, and ultimately that was what wrenched at Razor's heart more than anything else.

He turned and walked heavy steps toward the old oak. Nightmare had risen while he was talking to Stormblade and was standing by the side of the tree, unmoving, her red armor gleaming in the moonlight. Her eyes met his, but she said nothing as he stepped in front of her and put his prey down.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, the words feeling empty and futile. Because of his cowardice, she'd been caught and evolved; an apology couldn't make up for that.

She regarded him in silence for a moment. "What's the point?" she said eventually. "It's been too long. By now, if things hadn't gone the way they did, I wouldn't be who I am today, so what would it even mean for me to say I wish you'd warned me?"

He looked up and stared at her, so confounded by that train of thought that he couldn't quite begin to formulate a reply. She picked up the carcass in her pincers, as if this was all perfectly normal, and tore a strip of flesh from it.

"So your trainer released you too, huh?" she went on after swallowing.

Razor shook his head numbly.

She glanced away. "Oh. Are you staying?"

"I don't know," he said.

"I know the feeling," she said, without looking at him. She didn't elaborate; the statement just hung there in the air, and it struck Razor suddenly, with a hint of irony, that now, more than three years after he'd left the swarm proclaiming that he loved her, they actually had something in common.

"So you..."

She turned towards him, a humourless chuckle escaping her. "You know what's funny? I miss him. He caught me and turned me into a freak, and now here I am and I miss him."

Razor thought of seeing her trainer at the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament, where that face had been engraved in his mind; of the blind hatred that had consumed him as he'd attacked him in the forest; of the grim satisfaction of staring him down at the League and knowing that the boy recognized him. "You liked your trainer," he said slowly as it sank in.

"He was just a kid," she said. "It had never even occurred to him that a Scyther wouldn't want to evolve. He was devastated when I told him. He never stopped telling me he was sorry."

He started to laugh. There was nothing else to do. She looked at him with a vague sort of curiosity.

"I tried to kill him," he said; he couldn't lie to her now, not after everything else he'd done. "I tried to kill him twice because I hated him so much for doing that to you. And when my trainer battled him in the League, he recognized me and..."

Nightmare blinked at him. Then another blink. "It was you?" she said, realization building in her voice. "Flareon said there was a Scyther and he had a breakdown and... it was _you_? He released us because of _you_?"

He giggled helplessly. He was the curse that had returned three years on to destroy her life yet again. To think that he'd been the one to name _her_ 'Nightmare'.

He expected her to lunge at him and tear his throat out then and there, but the appalled incredulity in her eyes just faded again; she looked away and sighed dully, putting the meat down as if she'd had enough. "In a way it's for the best," she said, a hint of bitterness in her tone. "Part of me always wanted to come back, but I never would have taken the chance of returning until I had nothing to lose. And now where would the swarm be without me? Still cowering under a mad rapist?"

Razor twitched as his understanding of Leader-Shadowdart jerked violently yet again, still further from any hope of being reconciled with the one he remembered. _You don't want to know,_ Stormblade had said.

"That Leader used to be my friend," he muttered, but didn't really know why.

"So I've heard," she said. "Does that make it all better?"

He shook his head.

She looked away from him, staring over the plains and at all the other Scyther. "I'm going to try to become Leader," she said suddenly; her voice had changed, its previous dull bitterness replaced with a resentful determination.

Razor looked sharply at her, puzzled. "Leader? Why?"

"Because for once," she spat, "I wish a generation of Scyther could grow up without living in compulsive fear of breaking the Code. The others don't get it; they've lived their whole lives knowing nothing else and would just regurgitate the same crap that their Leader taught them. But I'm different. Living with a human opened my eyes. Mistakes should be something you learn from, not a death sentence. I want to create a swarm where the Code is just a crazy myth and morality comes from common sense."

He stared at her; after a second he let out a surprised half-chuckle. Her ideas were huge, strange, radical; it was all too much to take in at once. "How are you going to become Leader like that?" he said; it was the only thing that stuck properly. "You're not... you're not a Scyther anymore."

"You were the first Scyther I'd duelled in years, back at the Pokémon Frenzy Tournament," she said. "I lost because I was trying to fight you like a Scyther. Since I got here I've been practicing, and now I know how to duel like a Scizor. And I'm _good_." There was a fierce glint in her eyes as she said the last word. "I think I can beat all the other Leader candidates. And if I can't, it doesn't matter, because it's all friendly duels. I have nothing to lose."

He must have looked as sceptical as he felt. "I'm not a cripple," she went on, her voice harsh. "I can show you."

It took him a moment to catch on; his brain was still trying to process the fact that apparently she thought there just shouldn't be any suicide of guilt, at all. "You mean a friendly duel?" he said warily.

She gave a scornful laugh. "I don't do true duels anymore. I had a bad experience once."

He nodded mechanically without thinking about it; he couldn't think right now, not while his mind was still reeling with the fact she was clearly mad. At least a duel would be a distraction.

They stepped back from one another, his scythes at the ready, her pincers gleaming. He looked in her eyes and saw calm, deadly conviction. That was the thing: she didn't look mad; she looked like she knew exactly what she was doing. The strangely alluring confidence that had defined her the day of their first duel was still there, even in this hideous, mangled body. The dissonance unsettled him, and he shuddered.

And suddenly, taking advantage of his distraction, she was flinging herself at him.

He let out a surprised yelp and raised his scythes in defense. A Scyther would have met his scythes with her own, but she simply barrelled straight into him, his scythes scraping uselessly against her stronger metallic armor without putting a scratch in it. Her greater weight easily knocked him into the ground; reflexively, he kicked hard at her abdomen to prevent her from landing on top of him, successfully throwing her over his head to buy time to scramble back to his feet.

He whirled around to face her; rather than having crashed as he'd hoped, she had easily regained control, turned around and planted her pointed feet in the ground. She hissed, gesturing tauntingly at him with her pincers; he lunged towards her with a roar, raising his scythes and aiming for her seemingly fragile arms.

He took a swipe with his right scythe – and it was suddenly stopped short as her left pincer lashed out and locked around it in a deathgrip. His whole body thrown off balance, he crashed into her from the side, but her feet dug firmly into the ground and absorbed his momentum. Still reeling, he swung his left scythe, only for her to clamp onto it with her other pincer and hold it still.

He yanked his right scythe towards him; pain shot through his arm as her grip only tightened around the blunt edge, drawing bluish-black blood. His left arm fared no better, and panic bubbled up within him as he realized he could not move his scythes at all. Crying out, he desperately tried to kick her, but her seemingly delicate metallic legs didn't even budge. She smirked at his shock for a moment more, as if to give him time to comprehend his situation; then she leaned forward, wrestled him easily into the ground with her weight, and twisted his left scythe around to his own throat.

His heart hammering, his breath caught, it struck him suddenly that perhaps it had been a trap all along – her easy forgiveness, their conversation, disorienting him with her bizarre Leader idea (_no Code_), all to get him to agree to a duel so that she could finally finish the job she'd left unfinished three and a half years ago.

For the second time, he lay at her mercy, expecting or hoping or wishing to feel a blade slicing through his trachea, taste blood for the last time, and then fade away into a sweet, just nothingness.

And for the second time, she relaxed her grip, rose, and stepped off him.

He gasped for breath, the edges of his scythes still aching where she had crushed them. It took him several seconds before he could rise up and stumble back to the tree to sit against it.

"Still think a Scizor can't become Leader?" Nightmare said, sitting down beside him; her tone was a little smug, but not spiteful. He shook his head numbly.

They sat there for a minute without speaking, listening to the sounds of the night. Her grotesque metallic body shone in the moonlight, like a scythe, like something beautiful when it _wasn't_. It confused and frightened him, like she did in general. And yet...

"Thank you," he muttered, finally.

"For what?"

"Sparing me."

She snorted. "That was a friendly duel, you dolt."

He shook his head. "Back then. I always used to resent you for it, but you're right – if I'd died that day, I wouldn't even be here to think about it, and I'd never have grown up from who I was then." He took a deep breath. "So thank you, for... letting me grow up."

She smiled faintly. "That was the day I realized the Code was wrong. I didn't understand it, then, but I looked at you and didn't want to kill you, and that was the spark. I'll never forget."

_The day I realized the Code was wrong._ He twitched instinctively. So it was that simple, to her. The Code was wrong, so she didn't need to feel guilty or twisted for breaking it. The Code was wrong, so she could – should – just stop teaching it to the hatchlings and come up with something better. The Code was wrong, even though it was the Code that defined right and wrong in the first place.

He had meant to conclude once and for all that her ideas were mad, but the thought didn't seem quite as crazy as he'd intended it to once he'd actually thought it. It clung to his mind as he tried to dismiss it, squeezed into every available space and refused to let go. The Code was wrong. What if it really was that simple? Other Pokémon got on fine without the Code, and yet they got their morality from somewhere. So did humans. Mark had thought the Code was wrong, back at the League. What if he was right?

The Code was wrong. He tested the thought in his head, tentatively; it was strange, alien, but not actually that bad. The Code was wrong, so there didn't have to be any suicide of guilt. The Code was wrong, so there was no need to even decide that you were too far gone for it to make a difference anymore. The Code was wrong, so there was never anything to feel guilty about in the first place.

The Code was wrong. It was such a simple, mind-boggling, blasphemous, freeing idea. And somehow... it had never even occurred to him.

His head spun. Part of him screamed this was a dangerous way to go, that the Code was sacred and whatever else you did you couldn't just dismiss it wholesale or something terrible would happen, and another part was filled with the same soaring excitement as three and a half years earlier, the excitement of following her lead in some kind of crazy rebellion.

"So," Nightmare said with a sigh, snapping him out of a trance, "in short, I liked my trainer fine, but I have a job to do, and if I weren't here I couldn't do it. I'm just not so sure about him, or the others on the team."

Guilt stung at him, new guilt that had nothing to do with the Code and maybe didn't have to. Even if he did see that boy again someday, he doubted he could do anything to help him – much less the other Pokémon he had released. But perhaps he could try.

"What about you? Did you like your trainer?" she asked after a moment, and he couldn't shake the feeling she was trying to change the subject.

He considered telling her about Rob, who had saved his life and been his best friend for three years, and then it had all changed when his obsession with Mew had taken over – but his mouth was dry and the thought was painful, so he just nodded silently. She gave him a curious look, but didn't ask.

"So have you decided yet if you're staying?" she said after a while.

There was a part of him that wanted to say yes, wanted to stay here and continue to hear about her strange, liberating ideas and watch her become Leader and change the swarm – a part that had been childishly infatuated with her for four years and didn't quite seem to be able to let it go even now that she was a Scizor.

But there was another part that really had grown up.

He took a deep breath, shaking his head, and rose to his feet. "I think you'll be a great Leader," he said, and he meant it. "But now that I think about it, I have a job to do, too."

She nodded, and he could tell that she understood. He'd never before thought of himself as having a calling – he'd been too caught up in trying to distract himself from the fact everything he knew told him he was worthless and ought to be dead – but if the Code was wrong, it was obvious, really. Nightmare's calling, the most worthy thing that it was in her power to do, was to change the swarm. But the most worthy thing it was in his power to do was to help his trainer stop the War of the Legends.

"Are you ever coming back?" she asked.

"Maybe," he said. "If everything goes well."

They looked at one another for a moment more. "Goodbye, then," she said.

He nodded to her. "Goodbye."

Three and a half years ago, he had blindly followed her in rebelling against the Code and leaving the swarm, without truly understanding why. Now, she had inspired him to go his own way and do something that mattered – not because it was the best available distraction from his own self-loathing, but because it needed to be done.

Whatever his life might have been like without her, he couldn't help feeling that on the whole she had made him better.

"Don't forget your Nidorino," she said as he was turning to leave.

"Keep it." He smiled faintly. "Consider it my thanks."

* * *

Stormblade was still sitting a short distance away, staring up at the stars.

Razor walked up to his side and stopped. "I'm going back," he said when his friend didn't acknowledge him.

"I heard your conversation," Stormblade said, without looking around. For a moment, it seemed as if that would be all. Then, he turned his head and said, "You said you had a job to do. What did you mean by that?"

Razor took a deep breath. "My trainer... is on a kind of quest. There are legendary Pokémon involved. Many difficult battles need to be fought, and... I'm one of the team."

Stormblade looked at him for a long second before nodding. "You really need to go, then," he said, and Razor realized he sounded disappointed.

"Were you hoping I'd stay?"

Stormblade sighed heavily. "I don't know," he said. "I used to think I was angry with you on Nightmare's behalf for not helping her, but she's never really cared. Thinking about it, that probably wasn't ever really it." He paused. "I think the thing is that you ran off. And in the meantime Shadowdart went..."

He looked away, uncomfortably. "I didn't mind at first. I kind of admired you, you know – for defying the Code for the sake of love, and all that. And then we met you again there in the forest and you'd just... you'd left her to get caught. And you were _trained_."

That disdain for trained Pokémon seemed almost alien now, but Razor remembered it from his swarm days: Pokémon that willingly went with humans had given up, lost their independence, and lived the lowest sort of existence – spending their days manipulated by another, fighting for them, living for them. The very opposite of any kind of defiance.

"Trainers aren't..." Razor began.

"I know," Stormblade said in exasperation. "Nightmare says that too. But I don't understand that. I don't think I _can_ understand it. All I know is you left and Shadowdart's dead and Pearl's dead and..."

Razor had never heard the name Pearl, but he guessed she must have been Stormblade's mate. "I'm sorry," he said again.

"Now it's just me and Nightmare," Stormblade said with a sigh. "But it's not the same. We're friends, but there's so much she's been through that I could never get my head around."

Razor looked at him in silence. "Would you like to come with me?" he said suddenly, on an impulse.

Stormblade looked up sharply. "What?"

"You could come with my trainer, help us fight. It's something worthy to do."

Stormblade stared at him, his gaze turning distant; a few seconds passed before he shook his head. "No, I don't think I could do that," he said quietly.

"Because it's a trainer?" Razor guessed.

"Because I want to help Nightmare, any way I can," Stormblade said, his voice hardening. "Ultimately it was the Code that took you and Shadowdart away. I want it gone."

Razor nodded numbly. Only an hour earlier, that comment would have confused and disoriented him; now it seemed almost routine, in a strange, detached way. They were all rejecting the Code. He could almost imagine it was the normal thing to do.

"Do you think she'll make it?" he asked after a moment. "Become Leader, I mean?"

"I think she will. She can beat them all in a duel. All I'm worried about is..." Stormblade hesitated. "Even if they can take having a Scizor in the swarm, I don't know if they could get behind having a Scizor as Leader, especially if she's trying to make radical changes."

"But the purpose of the Leader is to be the strongest member of the swarm," Razor pointed out, doubtful.

"Yeah, I hope they think so, too," Stormblade said, sighing. "But it doesn't matter. If worse comes to worst, we'll just leave again. She always says running from a lost cause isn't cowardly, just smart."

They stared over the swarm for a moment. Razor wondered if the Scyther that were scattered there were loyal enough to the Code to revolt against an attempt to make it irrelevant, and he was struck with a sudden, overwhelming sense of futility: why were they so attached to the Code in the first place? Why had he been? It had never occurred to him to even ask himself that.

But now he was free, and if Nightmare succeeded, soon they would all be.

"You should go," Stormblade said quietly. "Your trainer needs you."

Razor nodded silently. "I hope it all goes well for you."

"Good luck to you, too." Stormblade paused a moment. "So you'll come back when you're done?"

"I promise," Razor said.

Stormblade exhaled, gave him a small nod, and then actually smiled. "Goodbye, Razor," he said, the same way he had said goodbye three and a half years ago.

Razor smiled back at him. "Goodbye, Stormblade."

And for the second time, he turned around to dash back into the forest of Ruxido, set on a new purpose.


	62. Mewtwo

**Chapter 61: Mewtwo**

When Mark woke up the next morning, it took him a moment of looking over the sleeping Pokémon around them to realize Scyther was there, awake, sitting against Charizard's side.

He crawled out of his sleeping bag, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Hey," he said, smiling, and walked over to Scyther. "You're still here."

"The Code is wrong," Scyther said softly, a slight hint of a grin on his face.

Mark blinked again. "What?"

"The moral code of the Scyther," the mantis said. "I was all set to try to ignore it for the sake of my happiness, but it never actually crossed my mind that it was just wrong."

Mark stared at him for a moment. "So you... you found your swarm?"

Scyther nodded. "Nightmare was there, too."

"Nightmare?" Mark asked, still puzzled. "Wasn't she... wasn't she Michael Willows' Scizor?"

"He released all his Pokémon sometime after that battle," Scyther said, averting his eyes again. "But she liked him. He was sorry for evolving her."

"Oh," Mark said. He felt a pang of guilty discomfort; even his flimsy justification for not forfeiting the battle against Michael was now void, but he supposed there was little he could do about it now. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Scyther said. "She set herself on becoming Leader. She wants to abolish the Code."

Mark stared at him again. He couldn't really comprehend quite what all this meant; all he knew of Scyther society were the bits and pieces that Scyther had told him, and he'd never imagined the code of ethics that Scyther had been hung up on since first joining him was something that could simply be changed.

"Shadowdart's dead," Scyther went on, distantly.

Mark couldn't remember who Shadowdart was, but if Scyther thought the name would mean something to him, he figured it had to be one of Scyther's two friends that they had met in Ruxido that one time. "I'm... sorry," he said hesitantly.

Scyther looked at him for a moment, like he was considering whether to say something else, then shook his head. "I've still got some things to figure out about living without the Code – I doubt you could help with that. But now that it isn't holding me back anymore, I've realized I can choose what I truly want to do with my life, and this is it. The War needs to be stopped, and I want to be part of that. And then I can go back to my swarm."

Mark nodded. He was still somewhat confused, but now for the first time as far as he could remember, Scyther sounded like he had something to live for, and that was what was most important. "I'm glad," he said. "That you're figuring things out, I mean."

"Me too," Scyther replied and smiled.

* * *

They set off eastwards later in the morning. May's Floatzel and the freshly-evolved Weavile tagged along outside their Pokéballs under the pretense of needing to practice their Ice moves, although it looked suspiciously like they were more concerned with continuing the competition they'd started the previous night over who could take down more wild Pokémon. May and Alan seemed to be getting along okay, but there still wasn't much in the way of conversation.

Mark was slipping into that sense of jaded boredom that had become permanently associated with this route in his mind when something seemed to prick at the edge of his mind, something that wasn't Chaletwo. He looked up warily; May and Alan had stopped as well, even Floatzel, and Weavile asked, "What?" and then...

...and then Mewtwo was standing in front of them, and he looked straight at Mark and said, _"Chaletwo, I want to talk to you."_

Mark felt a double dose of dumbstruck, staring at the legendary that had just appeared. _"How did you know I was here?"_ Chaletwo asked sharply for both of them.

_"Did you believe it was still a secret?"_ Mewtwo asked. His telepathic voice sounded eerily similar to Chaletwo's; it gave the bizarre impression he was talking to himself, which really didn't help Mark process any of what he was saying. _"Raudra and Puragon warned us that trainers had captured Dragoreen and that you were with them. Mew told us you were likely trying to stop the War. I do not agree with your methods, but that isn't why I'm here."_

Mark was stunned; this possibility really, really should have occurred to them at some point before now, but somehow Raudra and Puragon had never actually registered as agents capable of knowledge and suspicion.

_"What's with everyone knowing about the War all of a sudden?"_ Chaletwo said irritably. _"And if they know, why aren't they _helping_ us?"_

_"Raudra and Puragon are livid that you attacked and captured their sister instead of explaining the situation,"_ Mewtwo replied. _"By provoking their hostility, you have made them despise you. They know you will be back for them, and they plan to fight to the last. There is no hope they will cooperate with you."_

A rush of flustered anger arose in the back of Mark's mind. _"Why are they being idiots about this?"_ Chaletwo said fiercely. _"They're both going to die if they're not captured! Or if they just made soul gems we could leave them alone, but if they're..."_

_"You would have to discuss that with them, though I doubt they would listen,"_ Mewtwo said. _"The two things they care about most are one another and their power balance with their brothers. You have already taken both away from them; I feel they would not seal their brothers' victory by giving up their bodies for good, least of all when this would help you, even if it means the death of all that lives."_

Part of Mark was appalled by this, but part dully thought that sounded exactly like the kind of petty, spiteful thing they'd do. And yet another part could kind of see they were coming from, thinking guiltily of the Master Ball he had thrown at Dragoreen without ever attempting to simply explain things and negotiate with them – it had never occurred to him that they _could_.

_"In any case,"_ Mewtwo went on when Chaletwo didn't reply, _"that isn't what I came here to discuss. I wanted to talk to you about Mew."_

_"What about Mew?"_

_"I am concerned. She has been growing ever more quiet and aimless."_

_"He's been like that for a while,"_ Chaletwo said. _"My bet is he's conflicted about the War, even if he tries to pretend he thinks it's fated."_

_"That isn't all,"_ Mewtwo went on. _"She was distracted but sane when Raudra and Puragon came, but yesterday, she suddenly appeared on my island and was outright delirious. She rambled incoherently about the War and Chalenor and escaping it, and she seemed not to remember who I was. Then she kept saying she needed insurance. And as I tried to ask her what and why, she created a copy of my body and then teleported away."_

Everyone stared at Mewtwo. Alan was the first to say what they were all thinking: "Why would Mew do _that_?"

_"I had hoped that Chaletwo would know, having known about the War and been close to Mew longer than I."_ Mewtwo looked back at Mark, waiting.

_"Well, there's only one thing 'insurance' is likely to mean. He's figured out another way to escape from the War, and presumably it involves having a spare body around. Don't know what he's thinking; it could be as simple as planning to be resurrected into it from a soul gem."_

"But why Mewtwo's body?" May said, speaking for the first time. "Do you think it's just a coincidence it specifically went and got Mewtwo's body?" She looked searchingly at Mark.

_"What are you insinuating?"_ Chaletwo said, defensively.

"Well, anything," she said, shrugging. "All I'm saying is it's odd. If it was just looking for a body, why would it go to Mewtwo's island instead of copying its own or snatching the nearest wild Pokémon? And not only that; it's also the same body as Chaletwo's."

Mark was silent. His brain was tying itself into knots trying to figure out how all this connected; he _knew_ there was something there and it seemed only barely beyond his reach. _"So, what, you think he wants to impersonate one of us or something?"_ Chaletwo was saying, filling up Mark's mind with that instead of the thought that was trying to slip away, and he wished the legendary would stop talking. _"I don't think there's any connection. It was pure chance that I had Mewtwo's body in the first place; it was just Mewtwo happened to..."_

Why Chaletwo had Mewtwo's body. "Wait," Mark said as everything finally clicked into place. "Maybe we have it all wrong. You said Mewtwo had gone back in time with Chalenor and that's why Mewtwo's body was there after the last War. Right?"

_"Right, but you shouldn't really be talking about Mewtwo's future when he's right –"_

"And that doesn't make sense because living creatures belong to a certain time and should bounce back there when the Destroyer has drained the power that's keeping them there. But Mewtwo's _body_ isn't quite a living creature, is it?"

_"But you can't travel back in time –"_

"Yes, you can, if the past is where you originally came from," Mark pressed on. "So that wasn't Mew having gotten worse since Raudra and Puragon talked to him. That was Mew from a thousand years ago – that's why he didn't recognize Mewtwo, he'd never met him before – and when he went back he took Mewtwo's body with him. Mew and Chalenor must have gone to the future _together_ looking for 'insurance'. And then, after the War, he used that body to create Chaletwo. It all fits."

There was a beat of silence as everyone stared at him.

_"That's ridiculous,"_ Chaletwo said. _"We already know that Mew wasn't there and Chalenor took Mewtwo back because he was interested in seeing the past. The only mystery is why he wasn't pulled back to his own time..."_

"That's just what Mew told you," Mark said. "Isn't it time we faced the fact that Mew may not have told you the whole truth about everything?"

_"That _doesn't make any sense_!"_ Chaletwo said heatedly. _"Why in the hell would Mew lie about something like that?"_

"What about him not recognizing Mewtwo?" May said. "I'm with Mark. It's all very far-fetched the other way."

_"He's been unravelling mentally for years! It's just the stress of the War coming when he's already been through it once. It doesn't mean he's the goddamn Destroyer. What is wrong with you people?"_

May raised an eyebrow at Mark; Floatzel looked up, intrigued, as Weavile tried to pull her back into their mock fight. Mewtwo and Alan just seemed puzzled.

"I wasn't even saying he's the Destroyer," Mark said cautiously. "I was saying he went to the future with Chalenor before the last War looking for 'insurance'. If anything that sounds more like he _isn't_ the Destroyer."

_"And then you're saying he went and lied about the whole thing, made up a bunch of crap about how Mewtwo wanted to see Chalenor's time, and hid the fact he was even there, for no reason whatsoever, simply because you've decided everything Mew says is automatically suspect. And you think that's the _more_ plausible version? Well, forgive me if I'm not convinced."_

There was a beat of silence. _"I have to agree that it does not sound like Mew,"_ Mewtwo then said. _"She did not tell the rest of us about the War, but I have never known her to lie; Chaletwo has known about the War since the beginning, and yet you presume she told him an outright fabrication regarding his own origins. Do you suspect her of being the Destroyer?"_

"Well, maybe," Mark said hesitantly. "I just found it pretty odd that he explicitly told Chaletwo not to try to stop the War and tried to keep it from the other legendaries. But now he's been telling you and Raudra and Puragon and the Beasts, so I guess that doesn't quite fit, and the insurance thing sounds more like he was trying to escape it."

_"Nothing we know makes sense if Mew is the Destroyer,"_ Chaletwo said. _"I don't see why you're still even considering it an option."_

"But still," Mark went on, "I wasn't suggesting he was the Destroyer, just that he lied. Maybe he just thinks he made a horrible mistake trying to escape the War for some reason, doesn't want you to know about it because he doesn't want you to try, and discouraged you from trying to stop it for the same reason. Isn't that at least possible? Didn't you say he was really devastated after the last War?"

_"That was just because Chalenor died!"_

"Do you _know_ that?" May said. "Because it sounds more like an assumption to me."

"Guys," Alan interrupted before Chaletwo could respond. "Aren't we being a little presumptuous with the theorizing here? Most of this is just wild speculation that doesn't match up with Chaletwo's impressions, and Chaletwo's literally known Mew for a thousand years. I'm not saying Mark couldn't in theory be right, but you have to see that we really can't just assume that."

_"Thank you, Alan,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Good to see you're still sane."_

Mark took a deep breath and then nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, you're right. We can't say anything for sure, and it's not our biggest concern for now, anyway."

Even though he said that, he was almost completely convinced he was on to something. Part of him noted cautiously that some of the reason for his conviction might be a kind of cynical backlash against the idea of legendaries with perfectly pure motives and nothing to hide, but the fact it seemed to explain several apparent contradictions at the same time, even if it left some puzzling motives behind, couldn't be just a coincidence. And while he trusted Mewtwo's opinion somewhat more, he'd never gotten the feeling Chaletwo was at all objective where Mew was concerned.

_"So,"_ Mewtwo said after a pause, slowly, _"supposing Chalenor does come for me, what will happen if I do not go with him?"_

May looked doubtfully at Mark. He was momentarily confused before it hit him what Mewtwo was getting at: he would now have to knowingly go with Chalenor to his death in order for Chaletwo's version of events to happen like it supposedly did. He gave Chaletwo an anxious mental prod, now wishing he hadn't said anything (though would that have made it any better, really?); his previous certainty of his theory felt vastly overconfident now that it had occurred to him that there were serious consequences involved.

A few seconds passed before Chaletwo answered. _"I don't know,"_ he said reluctantly. _"It could unravel the universe for all we know, and I don't care to find out."_

Mewtwo looked at them in silence for a second and then gave a slow nod. _"Then that means I must."_

"I'm sorry," Mark said, and he was. Of all legendaries, it was Mewtwo who just nodded without a complaint when faced with the prospect of sacrificing his life – perhaps precisely because he hadn't lived for a thousand years believing he was truly immortal. Though he had only known him a couple of minutes, Mark already felt a deep respect for him, and if any legendary should die in the War, it seemed like it shouldn't be him.

"I still don't think that's going to happen," May said, breaking the silence. "And if Chalenor never comes to take you back in time and you're still out and about when this War starts, everything we've been doing is for nothing. I think that's the more important possibility here."

_"I can recall myself into a ball if Chalenor has not come before a given time,"_ Mewtwo said. _"If I become too weak to travel, I will assume he is not coming. You are certain that Pokéballs will stop the onset of madness?"_

Chaletwo hesitated. _"If they don't,"_ he said, _"then there's little we can do."_

Mewtwo looked at Mark for a moment, his violet eyes piercing and inscrutable. _"Very well. I still believe you should approach the others diplomatically before picking any fights."_

_"Mew forbade us to tell anyone about the War!"_ Chaletwo replied heatedly. _"I don't know why he's blabbing it to anyone and everyone now, but explaining things just wasn't an option –"_

_"You were already going against her wishes to not try to stop it,"_ Mewtwo said. _"I have tremendous respect for Mew, but sometimes she is wrong. You should have told them anyway."_

Mewtwo waited several seconds for a response, but there wasn't one.

_"Farewell, then,"_ he said. _"If I meet any other legendaries, I will try to persuade them to take measures against the War. Good luck."_

And then he was gone, vanished before their eyes as if he were never there.


	63. Diplomacy

**Author's Note: **I am currently attempting to finish this story for NaNoWriMo. This chapter was finished before November, and I'm not going to post whatever I manage to finish in November until it's been edited after, but if I do manage it, future updates should be quite quick. Thanks for reading.

* * *

**Chapter 62: Diplomacy**

Mark didn't know what he _had_ been expecting, but he had not been expecting Raudra and Puragon to descend murderously upon them the moment they were within range of the Eastern Cliffs.

"Floatzel, Weavile, Ice Punch!" May shouted, eyes wide, as the two dragons dived towards them. Without hesitation, Floatzel leapt at Raudra and Weavile at Puragon, each delivering powerful blows that sent them veering off course. "Mark, Alan, send out your Pokémon, quick!"

Mark automatically fumbled for his Pokéballs as the dragons recovered in the air and swooped in for another assault. _"You don't have to do this!"_ Chaletwo said to their attackers. _"If you'd only be caught willingly, this would be so much easier..."_

"Kidnapper!" Raudra roared and fired a bright Flamethrower towards Mark; he threw himself unthinkingly to the side and crashed into the ground as Floatzel darted into the Fire attack with a Waterfall in her wake, neutralizing it. His heart hammered in his chest as he scrambled back to his feet, only one thought managing to take hold in his mind: Raudra and Puragon were aiming for _them_, not their Pokémon. They had no intention of respecting the Agreement; they just wanted to kill them.

"We can release her!" he shouted frantically. "We'll release Dragoreen if you want, if you just agree to..."

"Why should we trust you?" Puragon hissed as she swung her tail at Skarmory and sent him spiralling towards Raudra, who received him with a jet of fire. "Why should we do anything for you, when you came here with deceit and violence and stole her away in a Master Ball?"

_"Because otherwise you're dooming the whole world, that's why,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Don't play dumb. We know you know about the War."_

"You can make soul gems!" Mark called, raising his hands to show no Pokéballs in the vain hope that the peaceful gesture would help somehow. "If you don't want to be caught, you don't..."

"Deceitful child!" Raudra spat, aiming another Flamethrower; as Weavile leapt up to strike Puragon with an Ice Punch, she turned and fired the Flamethrower at her instead. "You who threw the Master Ball when we had won the battle, you who..."

Make them calm down. Something, anything, to make them calm down. "I'm sorry!" Mark shouted, grasping wildly at his belt for his Pokédex. "Look!"

_"Are you out of your mind?"_ Chaletwo said inside his head as he fumbled at the buttons with shaking fingers. _"You can't just –"_

"Mewtwo said we should try to negotiate, right?" Mark said, almost convincing himself this was a good idea as he took the Master Ball he had swapped Scyther for and threw it.

"See," he called as Dragoreen began to form in mid-air, over Chaletwo's vehement protests, "she's unharmed, it's okay, you can just..."

Dragoreen's distorted screech materialized into a furious roar; her gigantic tail swung and lashed out, and a vicious force smashed into Mark's arm. The world spun; he realized in a split second that the Master Ball was no longer in his fingers, and then everything gave way into blinding pain.

_"Idiot!"_ Chaletwo hissed at him as he crumpled face-down to the ground, his vision swimming. _"Negotiating doesn't mean negating everything we achieved last time! What did you think that would accomplish?"_

He indistinctly heard May say, "Oh, damn it – Floatzel, dive after that Master Ball, quick! Weavile, cover her!"

"Liar," Puragon said, icy disdain in her voice. "Pretending to release her but wanting to keep the ball?"

"Cowards," Raudra muttered; Mark felt the heat rush of an oncoming Flamethrower and made a feeble attempt to move, but his good arm was shaking too much. He heard Mist's cry and the heat dissipated; he could only assume she'd deflected the attack.

"Are you okay?" he heard a voice say next to him and realized it was Alan, who must have run up to check on him.

"I'm... I don't know," he mumbled, but wasn't sure he was heard. Searing pain was still pulsing through his limp right arm with every pounding beat of his heart. He tried to stand up again, but to no avail. "Chaletwo, I can't... I can't..."

_"Don't try to stand up. Just send out your Pokémon. They can fight on their own. Goddamn it, why did you do that?"_

Mark shook his head and managed with a heave of effort and support from Alan to roll over onto his back. "Please," he said, as loudly as he could manage; that wasn't very loudly, so he took a painful breath and tried again. "Please, just listen. We're only fighting back because you attacked. If we could just have a ceasefire..."

"A ceasefire?" Raudra snarled. Her body was cloaked in dragon flames; she must have used Outrage while Mark was down, and in that state she couldn't be very receptive to the idea.

"I bet our brothers sent you," Puragon said before she fired an Ice Beam at Charlie.

At that seemingly off-hand comment, Raudra hissed fiercely. "Yes, they must have," she said. "Scheming males!"

"We should have known," Puragon growled.

"I bet they made up the War of the Legends, too, so they could get at us," Raudra said, fury building in her voice.

"What?" Mark said in panicked bewilderment as Puragon voiced her immediate agreement with Raudra's theory. "No! What are you talking about?"

_"Idiots!"_ Chaletwo shouted. _"Haven't you felt your power growing weaker? Didn't Mew explain the War to you himself?"_

"You're on their side!" Raudra spat and scorched Raichu and Stantler with a Fire Blast. "You're all on their side! Coming here and kidnapping our sister and lying!"

"Trying to rope us into your harebrained scheme," said Puragon.

"Should kill all of you, to send them a message," Raudra suggested.

"If only we could see the look on their faces."

Mark stared at the dragons, who were reaching a bizarre agreement that that was the correct course of action, and wished he could rewind the past few minutes. Chaletwo was right: attempting to negotiate had seemingly only made the sisters _more_ determined to kill them. He should never have even tried.

Looking quickly around, he realized Weavile was lying fainted on the ground near Raudra; he grabbed her Pokéball with his left hand, recalled her, and did his best to throw three of his other balls. Charizard, Jolteon and Dragonite materialized, rushing for their respective planned targets; he cursed that he'd fallen too far from the cliff to be able to send out Gyarados.

He looked around again to try to properly take in the state of the battle. Out of Alan's team, only Diamond remained, making impressive leaps to dodge Puragon's attacks but not having much luck actually striking her, though Blaziken was doing better. Mutark was hanging onto Raudra by her claws, slashing at her belly with her teeth, but with another Outrage, she fell limp to the ground. Stantler's attempts at Hypnosis weren't working on either of them. They were losing again, he realized with a sickening knot of dread in his stomach – in large part because his stupid attempt to pacify them had led to them unexpectedly fighting three dragons instead of two.

_Speaking of which,_ said a wary voice in the back of his mind, _where's Dragoreen?_

He turned quickly and found her hovering to the right, over the cliffs. He'd registered her firing Thunderbolts and Dragonbreaths earlier, picking off their Pokémon as they tried to attack her sisters, but she wasn't now; she was looking between the other dragons, hesitantly. "What is the War of the Legends?" she said.

"A lie is what it is," Raudra snarled. "Devious manipulation."

_"It's the reason you've been losing your powers,"_ Chaletwo said. _"Your crazy sisters are in denial, but you've got to have noticed."_

For a split second Dragoreen hung there, clearly dissatisfied; then, all of a sudden, she was diving straight towards Mark. He screamed as sharp claws dug into his sides; pain shot through his arm again, replaced by panic and nausea when she pulled him off the ground and swooped back over the edge of the cliffs, taking him with her. "Tell me," she hissed as she stopped in mid-air; his gaze could only find the sharp rocks that pierced the foaming water far, far below. "Tell me the truth or I'll drop you."

"It's, it's, it's a thing, the legendaries are going to go mad and fight until there's only one left," he blurted out without thinking. On the cliffside, Alan, May and his Pokémon were staring towards him, and he wondered for a split second in a bizarre anger why they weren't doing anything; then he realized all they could do was make her more likely to drop him. Raudra and Puragon, both cloaked with dragon fire, rushed back at the Pokémon, and they were forced to turn their attention back to the fight at hand. He was on his own.

"Why?" Dragoreen said, boring her claws into his ribcage; it took him a moment to wrap his terrified brain around what she was talking about.

"The, there's a legendary that's the Destroyer, and it makes it happen every thousand years, it drains your power and then redistributes it evenly –"

_"Mew explained it to your sisters,"_ Chaletwo said. _"I'm trying to stop it by having all the legendaries caught in Pokéballs before it happens. If I'm right, it will stop the War from happening."_

"Why didn't we know about this?" she asked; below, the waves crashed against the cliffs, cold and merciless. Mark's mind replayed a hypothetical fall in a wretched loop that he couldn't break out of: a rush of air, a spray of salt, water in his lungs, smashing against rocks, blood mixing with the seawater.

_"Mew forbade us to..."_

"We should have told you!" Mark said frantically, squeezing his eyes shut. "It was wrong to attack you without explaining what was going on and to use the Master Ball – I'm sorry!"

For several seconds, Dragoreen was silent, her body lurching up and down with every beat of her wings, sending Mark's stomach roiling. He heard Raudra cry out in pain among the Pokémon; they might have been bringing her down at last.

"Stop," Dragoreen said, shaking him for emphasis; a fresh jolt of pain coursed from his arm, wrenching his eyes back open. "Stop attacking, or he dies."

They did; as one, his Pokémon froze and stepped back in alarm, and some strange part of Mark managed to be weirdly touched. Raudra was beginning to crawl to her feet; Puragon, who was still in the air, took a deep breath and started to gather ice crystals in front of her mouth.

"You too!" Dragoreen said. "Stop it!"

Puragon turned towards her, clearly outraged, but let the ice dissolve nonetheless. "Do you believe their lies?"

"Did Mew tell you about this War of the Legends or not?"

"Our brothers must have threatened..."

"That's not what happened!" Mark shouted desperately, his sides still aching. "We've been out capturing legendaries since May, and some trainers have been around doing it for years – it had nothing to do with you!"

"That's what you say," Raudra spat. "You would say anything to get us to agree."

_"You've been losing your power and this is why! Get it through your thick skulls that –"_

"Chaletwo," Dragoreen said sharply. "You do not insult my sisters. If you do it again, I will throw your vessel in the ocean and you can watch the War from there."

"The power loss is a good point," May said before Chaletwo could respond to the threat; Mark had never been so glad to hear her speak. "How do you explain it if you deny the War?"

"It's just one of their tricks," Puragon said, but there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice this time.

"It's not a trick! If they could drain your powers away, they'd have attacked you already to take advantage of it! You of all Pokémon should know them well enough to realize that!"

Puragon looked unsurely at Mark, then at Dragoreen. "They're lying!" Raudra hissed from her place on the ground. "It's all trickery, all of it. They want to confuse us and string us along so they can laugh at us."

There was a strange note of desperation in her voice, almost pleading, and from somewhere within Mark's panicked mind came a pang of pity. This wasn't just some petty, hateful sibling rivalry; it was a genuine, obsessive paranoia, so deep-set and all-consuming that it poisoned all rational thought. Raudra _really believed_ that everything was somehow orchestrated by her brothers, and she was probably terrified out of her wits. Dragoreen likely only had a somewhat more objective perspective because this was the first time she was hearing about the War, instead of having had it feeding into existing fears for months with nobody but an equally paranoid sibling to discuss it with.

"Look," May said very carefully, looking at Dragoreen; her eyes were wider than usual, but her voice was steady. "When you're caught, you stop losing your powers. You felt that, right?"

Dragoreen nodded slowly.

"We're going to capture your brothers too. And because we went for you first, if you let yourselves be caught, they're going to have lost more of their powers by the time they're caught, so at the end you're going to be more powerful than them. But if you continue to fight back and kill all of us, and your brothers make the smart choice when one of the other trainers finds them, it will be the other way around."

"Lies!" Raudra snarled, releasing a Flamethrower in May's direction; she scrambled to the side at the same time as her Blaziken rushed to deflect it with a Heat Wave.

"Stop," Dragoreen said. "They're right. We stop losing our powers if we're caught. There's no sense waiting around as we grow weaker."

"Could we really gain the upper hand on them?" Puragon asked with a wary interest.

"Yes," May said firmly. "The sooner you're caught compared to them, the better."

On any other day Mark would have winced at the idea of encouraging this, but at the moment he didn't care; if it made Dragoreen put him down, it was worth it. He listened with shaking breaths as Dragoreen and Puragon encouraged Raudra to agree, and as Raudra continued to refuse and tell them with increasing fanaticism they were being taken in by a massive conspiracy, but increasingly couldn't focus on them under his building nausea and the pulsing pain and pins-and-needles sensation in his arm and the claws still clutching at his ribs.

By the time he thought maybe Raudra was starting to budge a little, everything had blended together into arguing voices and pain and sickness.


End file.
